The Dangers of Sugar and Spice
by Flyaway Dove
Summary: Sequel to Sugar and Spice It's Not Always Nice. Pepper's 7th year at Hogwarts with new friends, new love interests and a new rival, not to mention a new threat to her life.
1. Chapter One: Recovery Party

The Dangers of Sugar and Spice

**A/N: I have returned! Sorry it took me so long to get this posted, I tried to start this chapter so many times…anyway, here it is! Review! Tell your friends! Yay!**

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Chapter One

She had been hurt. There was no doubt in anyone's mind about that. That pain had added another block to her tower and had kept her shut up in her dorm room for days. When she had realized that people could reach her there she moved her tearful headquarters to the Head Girl's dormitory, where she spent more than a week hiding, not eating, and not attending many classes.

She had been looking forward to Christmas break since school had started in September. That was all she could talk about. Raphael, Raphael, Raphael.

Along came Christmas break. Hermione had decided to stay at Hogwarts. She didn't fancy seeing the reunion of Pepper and Raphael. Pepper, on the other hand, had left Hogwarts as soon as she could, only to return three days later.

Her story was told through many tears. When she had gone home she spent time with her family. She hadn't gotten away from them until the next afternoon. Then, she had bolted across the street to Raphael's house. She'd knocked on the door and waited. Raphael had answered the door a minute later…half naked, hair-disheveled and,(this is the part that took Pepper a long time to get out, due to her tears), he had an equally disheveled and scantily clothes college girl hanging all over him. Pepper's eyes had gone wide and Raphael's had too. He had shaken the girl off of him and said, "Oh, shit, Pepper."

Pepper had started backing up, shaking her head, hot tears springing to her eyes.

Raphael had stepped out of his house after Pepper, leaving the girl in the doorway looking rather angry. "Pepper, come back, I can explain," he had pleaded.

"No," Pepper had gasped. She'd stepped out into the middle of the street and almost got flattened by a car. Raphael had to dash out into the street and get her out of harm's way. That's when she had raised her hand to slap him. But she couldn't do it.

"Pepper…" his eyes had been pleading. "It's nothing. She's….she's no one…I just missed you."

"So you needed to fill your bed with someone that was willing to have sex with you!" Pepper had hissed at him. "Some…some _whore_!"

"Ex_cuse_ me?" the girl in the doorway said. She had then stepped out onto the street. "Little girl, I don't know who you are, but you don't know a _thing_, so don't start calling me a whore."

"All I _know_ is that I'm Raphael's GIRLFRIEND!" Pepper had screamed. By this time, tears were making their way down her cheeks.

"Poor baby," the girl had chided.

That was when Pepper attacked her. She had just run at the girl full force and knocked her over and started scratching and punching her. Raphael had had to pull Pepper off and hold her still. "Rose…are you all right?" he had said, and lent his hand to the girl lying on the ground.

"Rose..._Rose_…! I thought she was _no one _Raphael. No one!"

He had turned to Pepper in desperation. "Pepper I missed you. I care about you. Don't, don't do this."

"I love you…..I-I loved you, Raphael! I _thought_ that I LOVED YOU! And to think…to think that I almost told you my secret!" Pepper had screamed.

That was when she had frozen them. And started to sob. She had left the two of them like that: half naked on Raphael's front lawn and she ran across the street to her house.

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She had returned to Hogwarts the next day, thoroughly depressed, her eyes red-rimmed from crying. When she'd walked into the Entrance Hall, dinner was letting out. She was standing there, backpack dangling from her hand. The students had been headed up and down staircases to their various common rooms. No one had been paying much attention to Pepper. Only a few people had noticed her standing there, and no one thought anything of her. Pepper was keeping her eyes open for her friends. When she had seen them walk past, Blaise on his own, Hermione and Ron hand in hand, Harry and his girlfriend hand in hand, and Draco with his arm around a girl's waist, Pepper had burst into tears.

Hermione had caught her before she collapsed to the ground. "Pepper, what is it? Why are you back so early?" Hermione had asked, holding Pepper close.

Pepper had just mumbled incoherently, and continued to bawl.

Harry had been kneeling next to Pepper, his hand on her back. Ron, Draco, Harry's girlfriend, and Blaise had all been standing in a half-circle, trying to turn away the attention that was pointed their way.

"Pepper, what's wrong?" Hermione had repeated.

This time, Pepper had been able to get out a semi-audible answer. "He…her…he had a girl….you were right…you were all right…"

"Oh, _honey_," Hermione'd said, tightening her grip.

Harry had then suggested to his girlfriend that she go back to her common room. She'd gone gladly, not being too fond of Pepper.

"Black, you're attracting a lot of attention here," Blaise had said, ignoring the fact that Pepper was sobbing into her friend's shoulder.

Hermione had shot him a death glare. There was a stretch in which no one said anything and the rest of the students had filed out of the Entrance Hall. "Pepper, do you think we could get you up to my common room? You need to lie down."

By the time they had gotten Pepper upstairs, she was calmed down considerably and she was able to tell her story.

Her week of confinement began. During that week, she and Blaise got a lot closer. The two of them usually hung out in Draco and Hermione's common room while Draco and Hermione themselves were busy and the rest of their friends were busy with boyfriends and girlfriends. Pepper and Blaise both had the password to their best friends' rooms and Draco and Hermione let them come and go as they pleased.

Since Blaise had experience with cheating, he was able to help Pepper a lot. He hadn't been in a relationship with anyone since Alana. It seemed that he was the only one of Pepper's friends that didn't have a girlfriend or a boyfriend.

Draco seemed to flit from girl to girl, as usual, but he did more than sleep with a lot of them. Hermione and Ron were, of course, still together, and still in love. Harry and Ginny had gone their separate ways in November and Harry had gotten a new girlfriend the next month. Candie. Candie Marie Lowell. She was a witch like Pepper. She had natural powers, and she had come to Hogwarts this year because her parents needed to put here somewhere for the school year while they went on vacation. She was sorted into Slytherin.

Pepper did not like her at all, she hadn't from the start. To Pepper, Candie was stuck up, conceited, rude, and mean. She was rude to Pepper especially because Pepper was the daughter of a Charmed One. She acted like she was better than Pepper because she could control the wind.

Ginny had also gotten a new boyfriend. There were literally a handful of boys who had been waiting for her to break it off with Harry.

"PEPPER LILLIAN HALLIWELL-BLACK YOU HAD BETTER GET YOUR FAT ARSE OUT OF THAT ROOM AND DOWN HERE RIGHT THIS INSTANT!" Ginny shouted up the staircase to Hermione's room. Pepper was still locked up in Hermione's bedroom. "YOU NEED TO GET OUT!"

"NO!" came Pepper's voice. "I DON'T WANT TO!"

"IT'S NOT LIKE IT'S A CLASS PEPPER!" Ginny cried, putting her hands on her hips. "STOP BEING SO STUBBORN! YOU NEED TO GET BACK OUT THERE!"

"I DO NOT!" Pepper shouted. She opened the door and poked her head out. "I'm hurt, Gin, can't you see that?"

"Pepper, it's been over a week. You need to come to this party. I'm going to find you a new boyfriend."

"NO!" And Pepper slammed the door, shutting herself back in.

Blaise came up to stand behind Ginny. "Is she still in there?" he asked, staring at the door with a raised eyebrow.

Ginny nodded.

"This is getting ridiculous," said Blaise. "Hasn't Hermione tried to get her out?"

"Yes, but she finally gave up and went to help Draco get some food."

Draco and Hermione were throwing party in their common room. It had taken Draco a very long time to convince Hermione to let him throw a party, but she had finally given in. Her only condition was that there was no alcohol.

Blaise walked up the stairs and knocked on the door.

"Leave me alone, Ginny!" yelled Pepper.

"It's Blaise, Black. You can't stay in there forever!" Blaise said, sounding bored. He was getting sick of Pepper staying locked in Hermione's room.

"Yes I can! Blaise, you of all people should know how I feel right now!" said Pepper.

"Black, this is getting ridiculous," Blaise sighed. "Get your arse out here now."

"NO!" Pepper repeated once again.

Blaise turned the doorknob and opened the door, rolling his eyes. "Blaise!" Pepper said. "Get out!" She'd been sitting on Hermione's bed, but she got up when Blaise entered.

"Black, I'm getting sick of this. You're coming to this party, and that's final. I agree with Ginny: you need to stop wallowing in self-pity and find someone else," said Blaise.

Pepper crossed her arms. "I'm not going. You can't make me," she said.

"Don't give me attitude, Black," Blaise said, challenging her. "Now come on before I drag you down there."

"I'd like to see you try," said Pepper, raising her eyebrow in skepticism.

They were both too stubborn for their own good. Pepper knew that Blaise was going to win this battle because he could, in fact, drag her downstairs if he wanted to, seeing that he was stronger than her.

He walked deftly over to her in two steps, picked her up effortlessly, and threw her over his shoulder. She protested all the way down to the common room, beating his back with closed fists.

When Blaise put Pepper down, he warned, "Don't you dare try to go back up there."

"But I don't have the right clothes on!" Pepper said. "I look a mess. I can't find a…" she gulped, struggling with her next words, "a new boyfriend if I look a mess."

"She's right, Blaise, I'm sorry," Ginny agreed, eyeing Pepper. "I'll go upstairs and help her dress. Don't worry; I'll come down with her."

Hermione and Draco returned with food a few minutes later. Blaise helped them set up a table, set out refreshments, and push the couches and chairs closer to the fireplace to open up the floor for dancing.

While Hermione went to transfigure a side table into a stereo, Draco pulled a few bottles of assorted alcoholic beverages out of the folds of his robes and put them on the table.

By the time Pepper and Ginny came back down the stairs, Harry, Ron, Candie and Ginny's current boyfriend, Liam were in the common room. Ginny had gone all out with Pepper's look. Her goal for the night was to get Pepper a new boyfriend. Pepper was dressed in a flowing shin-length skirt and a sleeveless top. Ginny had done her makeup so that her eyes stood out. She was certain that this look would get Pepper some attention. Ginny hoped she would at least make an effort to smile when the guests started to arrive.

The eight of them finished setting up for the party, though Pepper was reluctant. No one paid much attention to her whining.

The guests started to arrive as soon as they were ready. The common room filled up quickly and soon the party was in full swing.

Pepper, who was sitting on a couch facing the cold, dark fireplace, couldn't help but tap her foot when music started pouring into the room.

Hermione and Draco had somehow found a way to hook up the transfigured stereo to play Muggle music. Electronics weren't supposed to work at Hogwarts, but somehow, the two of them had gotten the stereo to work.

Hermione had discovered her love of Muggle music over the summer. Her parents hadn't played much music, besides jazz, in the house and they didn't approve of the recent pop music. However, since Pepper had spent so much time with Raphael this summer and Hermione found herself with a lot of free time, she'd raided Pepper's large CD collection. Now, music was one of her greatest passions.

The spot cleared out for the dance floor was deserted, except for a few people that were standing there, talking. For the most part, that was all that was going on: people were talking.

Ginny came over to Pepper and pulled her up by her hand. "Wh­-_at_?" Pepper whined.

"Come dance with me," Ginny said. "No one's dancing. Let's be the first on the floor."

"Dance with Liam," Pepper said, trying to resist Ginny's pull at her arms.

"No, come on, _dance_! You need to get out there Pepper, you'll feel more like yourself on the dance floor," urged Ginny, managing to pull Pepper out into the clear space in the middle of the floor.

Ginny was right; once Pepper started to dance, she felt more like herself than she had all summer. Ginny grinned at her and she grinned back. One of Hermione's favorite songs came on and they danced closer to each other, laughing. As soon as Pepper started moving her body the people around her melted away and she forgot all about what had happened two weeks ago.

However, neither Pepper nor Ginny melted away to the people standing around talking. In fact, they rather drew attention to themselves, seeing as they were the only ones who were dancing, and rather provocative dancing at that.

Soon, Liam had to battle his way through the crowd on the floor to his girlfriend so no one else would dance with her.

The music was turned up and most of the party guests milled out onto the dance floor to dance. After a few songs, dancing with no one in particular, Pepper headed over to the refreshment table that was already littered with empty alcohol bottles. She abandoned the idea of alcohol and went to find Hermione. Hermione was on the dance floor, Pepper discovered, dancing with Draco, so Pepper headed off to find Ron.

He was sitting in an armchair up against the wall, sulking, and a bottle in his hand. Pepper sat on the chair's arm. "Hey Ron," she greeted.

"I don't like him," Ron growled. He was staring at Hermione and Draco. "I think he fancies her."

"He has a girlfriend, Ron," Pepper reminded him. She brushed a sweaty piece of hair from her forehead. "Plus, I don't think Hermione's his type."

"Hermione's everyone's type," said Ron angrily.

"Well if you just danced with her then she wouldn't have to dance with the absolutely fabulous dancer, Draco Malfoy," Pepper pointed out.

Ron got out of his chair, went over to Hermione and shoved Draco out of the way to dance with her. Pepper grinned. She was glad that Ginny and Blaise had made her come to the party tonight, she hadn't thought of Raphael much the entire night, and he was what had been on her mind for weeks.

Draco came over and sat in Ron's vacant chair. "Hey second cousin," said Pepper.

"Hey," Draco said, looking up at Pepper. He sounded a little out of breath. "What's with Weasley shoving me out of the way like that?"

Pepper laughed. "He thinks you like Hermione," she said, "so I guess I made him a little jealous by saying what a great dancer you are…?"

Draco shook his head, though he was smiling. He had been doing that a lot lately. Over the summer, when Pepper had been writing to him and Blaise, she had gotten closer to the two of them. Then, when Draco and Hermione had been made the Heads, Pepper, Blaise, Draco and Hermione had gotten closer. Ron and Harry had been less reluctant to become friends with the Slytherins, but the inevitable had finally happened. Plus, Draco seemed much happier now that his parents were dead and he was living with Blaise and his mother.

"So where's that girl you've been hanging with lately?" Pepper wondered, kicking her heel on the chair.

"Oh, I dumped her a few days ago, Pepper, where've you been?" Draco smirked.

"You mean you slept with her then kicked her aside?" Pepper asked, looking at him with a dark raised eyebrow.

"Pepper," Draco scoffed, "don't think so lowly of me. We talked for a little while, snogged, and I slept with her twice."

"Ah," said Pepper. "When are you going to look for someone to have a serious relationship with, Draco?"

"I figure in four or five years," Draco replied. "Why look for a serious relationship when you know you're not going to marry that person?"

"Well, you could marry them," Pepper argued. "Plus, that way, you won't get anyone pregnant." She looked pointedly at him.

"Don't look at me like that," said Draco. "I won't get anyone pregnant, don't you worry your pretty little head. Speaking of which, have you danced with anyone yet?"

"Besides Ginny? Not really," Pepper said. She shrugged, "I don't really want to."

"Pepper," Draco said incredulously, raising an eyebrow in her direction.

"What, I don't want to," said Pepper, her eyes wide. "Oh, no, don't tell me you're on Ginny's side."

"What side would that be?" Draco asked.

"The Pepper-needs-a-new-boyfriend-to-forget-about-Raphael-the-arsehole-who-she-was-so-dumb-to-fall-for side," Pepper replied.

"That's a long side to be on," said Draco. "I don't think that's the way Ginny put it, exactly. However, I do think you need to get over him, and getting laid isn't a bad idea."

"I don't think Ginny meant getting laid," said Pepper, cracking a smile. "Though that doesn't sound like such a bad idea."

"Yes it does, Pepper, I don't want to put you off of your virginity streak," Draco said with a smirk.

Pepper hit him lightly on the back of the head, flinging his blonde hair out of place, which he quickly tried to right.

"Have you seen Alana around anywhere?" Pepper asked, changing the subject. She strained her neck to look over the dancing, talking and drinking crowd.

"Nope," said Draco. "We invited her, but I think she and Blaise are still avoiding each other."

"I don't know if that would stop her from coming, though," said Pepper, crinkling her brow and continuing to spot-search the crowd.

"What about me?" said Blaise, coming over with three red bottles in his hands. He handed a bottle to Pepper and one to Draco.

"We were just talking about Alana," said Draco, uncapping his bottle.

"Oh," Blaise said, his tone harder. He took a swig of his drink.

Pepper sniffed at the contents of the bottle warily. "What is this?" she asked the boys.

Blaise shrugged. "Dunno," he replied. "Just drink it, Black, it's harmless." He had taken to calling her Black at the beginning of the summer, for some reason Pepper wasn't entirely sure of.

"So's Alana," Pepper muttered as she took a drink from the bottle. She shivered involuntarily as the liquid went down her throat. "Hasn't Hermione found out about all the alcohol you brought in here?"

"Apparently not," said Draco. "She would've blown up by now."

"Black, you'd better finish that and go searching for a bloke to dance with, or Ginny will be on your arse," said Blaise. "You know how dead-set she is on finding you another lying bastard to snog."

"Nice Blaise, thanks for that confidence boost," Pepper said, biting the inside of her lower lip and nodding her head slightly. "You're so cynical."

Blaise shrugged and raised his dark left eyebrow nonchalantly. "Blame it on the harmless Alana."

"I'll take this as my cue to find a lying bastard to go dance with," said Pepper, standing. She took her bottle with her and wove her way through the dancing mass of bodies. She figured now was the time to be bold and ask someone to dance before Ginny found her. Leaving the dance floor, she found a group of boys standing in a circle, talking to each other. Being the superficial seventeen-year-old she was, she picked out the best looking one, put on her best smile, and walked over to him.

"Hey," she greeted. "Would you like to dance?"

His friends were wiggling their eyebrows and egging him on. The boy didn't seem too fazed, he just said, "Sure."

Pepper handed one of his friends her half empty drink and lead him out onto the dance floor.

They danced for a song before they started to talk. "I'm Trent Holbrook," the boy said. "You dance well."

"I'm—" Pepper began, but Trent cut her off.

"You're Pepper Halliwell-Black," he said.

"Woah," said Pepper, "that's a little freaky."

"You're famous," Trent said, flashing Pepper a smile. "After what happened with You-Know-Who and everything last year. Plus, you're the daughter of a Charmed One and Sirius Black."

"Ah," said Pepper, and the song changed to a slow one. "So tell me about yourself, then." She wrapped her arms around his neck and his found her waist.

"Well, I'm a sixth year Ravenclaw," said Trent as they turned on the spot.

"You wouldn't happen to be friends with Liam, would you?" Pepper asked. Ginny's new boyfriend Liam was also a sixth year Ravenclaw.

"Yeah, I am," said Trent. "Not really good friends, but we get along well."

"It's a small world."

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**A/N: Alright, please review so I know if I should continue this or not…**


	2. Chapter Two: Pepper and Blaise

**A/N: Here's the second chapter…I really wish I could get more readers…well, to respond to some things..**

Lady Emerald Black**: Of course I read HP 6! In 8 hours! I was finished by early on the 16th.**

charmedsisters: **Pepper's powers are…premonition, freezing, telekinesis, mirroring, deflecting, and cloning**

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Chapter Two

Pepper and Trent hung out together until the party was over. Hermione ended up ending it around two in the morning after she discovered a few people stumbling around, shouting obscenities, obviously drunk.

Pepper, Harry, Candie, Blaise, Ginny and Ron waited around to clean up, and after the cleanup was over, Pepper and Blaise stayed.

"Do you two ever leave this room?" Draco asked as he collapsed onto a sofa.

"We eat dinner," said Pepper. "Well, now that I'm

"And go to the library," added Blaise.

"But for the most part, no," Pepper finished. "I like your bathtub."

"You have quite a lot of space for two people, Draco, you should be happy that the two of us decide to grace you with our presence," said Blaise.

"What Blaise said," Pepper said. "Besides, I'd much rather be up here where Harry isn't snogging his girlfriend and Hermione and Ron aren't snogging. This is a completely snog-free zone."

"Pepper," said Draco, "I think you had a little too much alcohol."

"Maybe," said Pepper. "But it wasn't firewhisky, Draco, so don't think you're getting anything from me tonight."

"This is the part where I go to bed," Draco said. "You two can make yourselves comfortable."

Hermione had gone up to bed a while before, so Blaise and Pepper were left in the common room alone.

The Gryffindor/Slytherin friendship between Pepper, Hermione, Harry, Ron and Draco and Blaise had started at the beginning of the school year. At first, Hermione had been a little bit wary when she found out that Draco had been named Head Boy. He had been cleared from the Dark side last year, but Hermione couldn't forget everything he had done to her and her friends over the years. They are started on friendly terms and became friendlier. Pepper had started to become friends with Draco and Blaise because she and Blaise both spent a lot of time in Hermione and Draco's common room. There was a lot of time that Hermione wasn't there because she was with Ron. A good chunk of Pepper's free time was spent with Draco and Blaise. And when Draco was off gallivanting with his many girls, Pepper and Blaise were alone.

Pepper spent so much time in the Head's common room because she didn't have any single friends to hang out with. Hermione and Ron spent as much time together as possible. Harry had first been with Ginny and then Candie. Pepper especially did not want to be hanging out with Candie.

She wasn't sure how she and Candie became enemies. Candie had just had an air about her around Pepper from the beginning. She arrived at Hogwarts at the beginning of the year and was sorted into Slytherin. Once the Slytherin/Gryffindor barriers were broken down, Harry took an immediate liking to her. Somehow Candie had found out about Harry and Pepper's past and had been flaunting Harry in front of Pepper ever since. It didn't bother Pepper, (Raphael had definitely done what she wanted him to do), except that it annoyed her to know end. Candie had also taken to insulting Pepper very subtly, so that only Pepper noticed. It seemed that Candie knew how to push Pepper's buttons and Pepper did not like it at all. Therefore, she avoided her at all costs.

Blaise had given up on girls since Alana. Pepper suspected that he had really cared for her, maybe even loved her, and had been really hurt by what she had done to him. Though he had many female pursuers, he spent most of his free time with Pepper in the library and with Pepper in the Head's common room.

Pepper wasn't sure how Blaise had gone from hating her to becoming friends with her.

A lot of times they just did their homework together, sometimes with Hermione and more oftentimes with Draco too.

Though neither would admit it, Pepper and Blaise were becoming great friends.

"Do I even want to know the firewhisky story?" Blaise asked, his arms on the back of the couch. He put his feet up on the coffee table in front of him.

"Didn't Draco tell you?" Pepper said, a little surprised that Blaise didn't know the story. After all, he and Draco were best mates.

"I'm afraid he failed to mention it to me," said Blaise with an arched eyebrow.

"Ah, well, I'll fail to mention it then too," said Pepper. She pulled her knees up to her chest and stared into the ashes of the fire.

"You're over Raphael now, right?" Blaise said. He wasn't one to show compassion, or even let someone hint a trace of it in his voice. However, he seemed to be bending that rule a little lately, since it seemed that compassion was what Pepper had needed on the Raphael topic.

"I danced a lot with a Ravenclaw named Trent," said Pepper, not looking at him. She wasn't sure how she felt about Raphael at the moment. She had liked dancing with Trent very much but she wasn't trying her hardest to get over Raphael. She didn't want to get over him. He had been her device to get over Harry. And she had fallen hard for him. She had thought that she was in love with him, but, looking back on it, she realized that she wasn't. She was in love with the idea of having someone spend so much time on her and the very idea of Raphael. Her Aunt Phoebe had told her, post-breakup, that every girl had to fall for a few bad-boys in her life. Usually, the relationships with the bad boys didn't work out. This hadn't comforted Pepper too much.

Blaise didn't push the fact that Pepper hadn't really answered his question. His strategy with things was to let Pepper tell him things when she wanted to. Most of the time, if he seemed uninterested, or actually was uninterested, then she would tell him more. When people pushed for information, no one ever wanted to divulge anything, was Blaise's opinion.

They were silent for a while, Pepper resting her forehead on her knees, her face disappearing into her lap. She was thinking about what Blaise had asked her.

After a few minutes she looked up. Blaise fixated his honey-colored eyes on her. "I think I've been thinking about Raphael too much the past few weeks," Pepper said. It seemed that she was trying to avoid giving Blaise a straight answer. There was a pregnant pause before she said, "I think I'm mostly over him."

"That's a good thing," said Blaise, and he yawned.

"What about you, Blaise?" Pepper asked, hugging her knees more tightly. "All you've been hearing about lately is me. I want to hear about you and _your_ problems now. Did you dance with anyone special tonight?"

Blaise shrugged. "Not really," he said, but he averted his eyes.

"C'mon now Blaise, don't lie to me," said Pepper, grinning and waggling her eyebrows in his direction. "What's her name?"

"Mystic?" said Blaise. "Mystery?"

"You don't sound so sure of yourself," Pepper said with a little smirk.

"I didn't quite catch her name," he said. "I was a little too busy snogging her."

"Ahh," Pepper said, laughing. "That's good. It sounds like you've finally gotten over Alana, then."

"It's not the first time I've snogged a stranger, Black," he replied cockily.

"Oh really?" she asked incredulously.

"Yes, really," said Blaise. "I don't have to tell you everything, you know."

"And you don't," Pepper said. "I know that. It just seemed that you were so hung up on your lost love—"

His face flushed and he cut in. "I did not love her Halliwell." When he called her something besides "Black" Pepper knew he was mad. Love was a touchy subject with him.

Pepper held her hands up, palms out, in surrender. "It's a saying, Blaise," she said, though that's not the way she had meant it.

"Now who's the liar?" said Blaise. "Are you finally going to leave Hermione's room and return to your dormitory tonight?"

"I suppose," said Pepper, putting her feet on the floor. "I guess that's where I'll head off to now. I just hope Lavender and Parvati didn't being anyone back to our dorm. Ever since Hermione moved out and there are more inter-house relationships, the two of them have been so frivolous with the guys they bring to our dorm. I don't know how they sneak them in, but they manage it somehow." She stood up. "Well, goodnight Blaise. Go sleep with your mystery woman."

At the start of the school year, Pepper had run into Harry in the common room on nights when she couldn't sleep. Occasionally Ron would drift down there too, and a few times Hermione even straggled in, despite the fact that she had a new common room now.

The three of them had trouble sleeping for the same reason that Pepper sometimes did: they were thinking about the war.

Tonight was one of the nights that Harry was in the common room. He always sat in the dip between two of the cushions of the scarlet couch. His head was usually in his hands. Tonight he looked up when Pepper came in the portrait hole. The clock in the Gryffindor common room rang three o' clock as Pepper waved hello.

"You've returned to the world of the living!" Harry joked, though Pepper could tell the joke was almost strained, as if Harry was coming out of deep, serious thought.

"Took me long enough, didn't it," said Pepper. She sat down on the couch next to him. "Knut for your thoughts."

"I know that Voldemort was putting dreams in my head while he was alive," said Harry, his forehead in his hands, his elbows on his knees. "But, you would think that after I killed him the nightmares would stop."

"You would think," agreed Pepper. "It's not fair that you've had to deal with this. It should be over by now."

"It _would_ be nice to get some sleep every once in a while," Harry sighed. He ran a hand through his rebellious hair. "Plus, it's Hogsmeade tomorrow."

"Well you'd better get your rest for Candie Lowell," Pepper said, smiling sickly-sweet. "You wouldn't want to be too tired to snog her, would you."

"No, I wouldn't," Harry said sarcastically. He didn't like the way Pepper treated his girlfriend. "Therefore, I'm going to bed. Goodnight Pepper."

After that, Pepper had no choice but to go to bed.

The next morning at breakfast it seemed that most of the fourth years and up had hangovers. Pepper straggled in with Harry and Ron sometime around eight, supporting headaches of their own. "Hogsmeade should be interesting," said Harry as the three sat down and he took a piece of toast.

"Yes, yes it should be," Pepper agreed. "Especially walking through the lonely streets all alone."

"Stop the self pity, please," said Ron, piling his plate high with scrambled eggs. "We're all hanging out together today. And what about that 6th year you were dancing with last night? Didn't he ask you to Hogsmeade with him?"

"No," said Pepper, slightly miffed. "And I don't really fancy being the fifth wheel."

"Oh cheer up Pepper," said Harry, taking a bite of sausage. "You have a million friends. You'll find plenty of people to hang out with. You don't have to walk around with us if you really don't want to."

Hermione came down for breakfast a little while later, shoving her hair into a ponytail. She looked a little flustered.

"Hey love, what's wrong?" asked Ron as Hermione sat down next to him. He slung an arm around her waist.

"I just can't believe him," said Hermione, shaking her head.

"Who, Malfoy?" said Ron, and his temper suddenly flared up. "What did he do, Hermione?"

"Oh, nothing to me, Ron, don't worry. He just managed to sneak a girl into his room last night and this morning…" Hermione shivered slightly as she recalled. "This morning I walked in on the two of them in the bath. He hadn't locked my door to the toilet and so…" She trailed off and gave another little shiver.

Ron, still furious, made a move to get up, but Hermione pulled him down and snuggled up against him. "Don't worry about it Ron, I'm not scarred for life," she said.

He seemed to soften at her proximity.

From the other side of the table, Pepper saw Draco, a scantily clad girl on his arm, enter the Great Hall. He looked very smug. Pepper rolled her eyes at him, though he couldn't see it.

That was when Candie Marie Lowell flounced over to their table. Pepper had to admit, she was very good looking. And the way she walked definitely caught your attention. She could see why Harry was attracted to her. But Pepper still didn't like her.

"Are you ready to go to Hogsmeade, Harry?" Candie asked, leaning across the table.

Harry always seemed to melt in her presence. "Of course I'm ready, Candie." He looked around at his friends sitting at the Gryffindor table. "Are you guys ready to go?"

Pepper, Hermione and Ron all nodded and the five of them headed out of the Great Hall and onto Hogsmeade.

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**A/N: 10 points to anyone who notices the connection between two people's names, their relationship to each other, and the title…**

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	3. Chapter Three: Hogsmeade with Trent

**A/N: You guys ROCK.**

**I am so sorry for the long wait, but I was busy with Christmas and midterms and other fanfics. You should check them out. :-) **

**Anyway, thanks for all the reviews. I hope you keep them up.**

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Chapter Three

Sitting alone at a round table made for eight, her hands wrapped around a mug of steaming coffee, Pepper wondered if Ron had remembered what he had said this morning about all five of them hanging out together at Hogsmeade. It had started out that way, but as the morning had progressed, certain people wanted to go into certain shops and they had all ended up in different places, agreeing to reconvene in the Three Broomsticks at three.

It was two forty-seven and Pepper was already there. She had gotten bored of walking around alone in the cold, as interesting as the shops were. Through the whole morning she had been alarmingly aware of the couples meandering the streets.

Her aunt Phoebe had always stressed that women didn't need men to define them, but Pepper was in one of those moods. In fact, she had been in one of those moods for a while. She wasn't sure why, and it was beginning to irk her.

Taking the last large swig of her coffee, she made a promise to herself that she was alright alone. Well, alone in the boyfriend sense, anyway. She still had her friends.

To celebrate her new independence, she ordered herself another coffee. Pepper wasn't in the mood for butterbeer, and she needed caffeine, especially after last night.

And, speaking of last night….Pepper's eyes strayed to the door of the Three Broomsticks, where a mop of light brown hair with Trent Holbrook's face was standing with a group of people. Pepper made no move to get up. If Trent wanted to talk to he he'd come over. Pepper didn't feel like getting up at the moment. Besides, she was using all of her mind power to draw him over to her, despite the promise she had just made to herself a minute ago.

She kept staring at him, squinting her eyes and leaning forward, willing Trent to look her way. And look her way he did, smiling as he met her squinty eyes. Pepper immediately pretended that she wasn't looking at him, widening her eyes and bringing her mug to her lips for a sip of coffee that wasn't there. When she took the mug from her face Trent was walking towards her table without his friends.

He flashed her a smile and sat down without asking. "Hey, Pepper," he greeted.

Pepper nodded in acknowledgement and sat up straight, flinging her hair behind her shoulder, trying to look attractive.

"Why are you all alone?" he asked.

"People are meeting me here in a few," Pepper explained, taking another invisible drink out of her mug.

"Listen, Pepper—" Trent was cut short by the jubilation coming through the front door, bringing in a blast of cold air and flurrying snow.

Hermione, her cheeks pink from the cold, hurried over to Pepper, Ron, Harry, Blaise, Draco and Candie in tow. They all swept into seats, scarves spraying snow around the table, laughing and greeting Pepper. As soon as they sat down, Madam Rosmerta swooped over with Pepper's coffee, taking orders of butterbeer all around.

It wasn't until she had left that the presence of Trent was questioned. "Who're you?" Blaise asked rather rudely, loosening the Slytherin scarf around his neck as the heat of the Three Broomsticks crept through his winter wear.

"I'm Trent," Trent replied, offering Blaise a smile.

"Oh, the sixth year Ravenclaw," Blaise said.

"So Pep, what've you been doing all day?" Hermione asked, unbuttoning her coat and unwinding her scarf from her neck. "Buy anything interesting?"

"Coffee," said Pepper, holding up her full mug to show Hermione. "I've been here for a while. I got too cold."

"So you haven't been going 'round with Trent all afternoon, eh?" Harry asked, his arm slung loosely around Candie, an eyebrow raised at Pepper. He didn't know about Pepper's run in with Trent last night since he'd gone to bed before she had explained anything.

"Nope, I've been getting hyped on caffeine," Pepper grinned exaggeratedly. "Oh, I should probably introduce everyone, right? Trent, from left to right, there's Blaise, Draco, Hermione, Ron, Harry, and Candie."

Trent raised his hand and waved at the group. Madam Rosmerta returned to the table with a tray load of butterbeer, passing tall mugs around the table. For a time there was silence while they all gulped down their warm drinks.

Then, a piercing cry cut through the air. "Blaise!"

All eight of them turned their heads to see a dark-haired girl with very pale skin, very red lips and a very large chest standing not five feet from their table. "Hey…you," said Blaise. Pepper could tell he was groping for a name. Then she figured it was the girl he had been snogging at the party. Mystery/Mystic, whatever her name was.

"Can I join you?" she wondered, her blue eyes bright with excitement. Before anyone said anything she pulled up a chair from another table, squeezing between Blaise and Draco.

"Who is this, Mr. Zabini?" Draco speculated, impressed, looking past the girl at his best friend.

Blaise was saved the humiliation of forgetting her name by the girl herself. "I'm Mystic," she introduced, smiling widely. "I'm a Hufflepuff, seventh year."

Draco seemed a little less impressed at this news.

"I met Blaise last night at the party," said Mystic cheerfully, scooting closer in her chair to Blaise. He looked slightly uneasy.

"Well isn't this depressing," said Draco, and he took a swig of his butterbeer. "And surprising."

"What is surprising, Draco dear?" Pepper wondered, tossing her hair back over her shoulder again and wondering what Trent thought was attractive in a girl. Then she wondered why she was thinking that and decided to forget that she had made a promise to herself.

"That you're all whores and I'm not," he replied easily.

"Thanks, Malfoy," said Ron facetiously.

"Where's that girl you were with this morning?" Hermione asked Draco, quirking an eyebrow at him.

Draco shrugged. "She's probably somewhere around here. Everyone migrates into this place eventually."

Suddenly, Pepper heard a whisper in her ear. It was Trent. "Do you want to go walk around?" he asked.

She turned her head slightly to face him and nodded, smiling. Trent grabbed her hand and pulled her up from the table. "I'll see you all later at Hogwarts," she grinned around the table, raising her eyebrows up and down suggestively before Trent dragged her across the room and outside.

"You're eager," Pepper smiled as she dropped Trent's hand and wrapped her coat tighter around herself as the winter wind hit her.

Trent grinned toothily at her. His dark hair was blowing in the wind, blue eyes sparkling mischievously at her. "Can you blame me?" he asked.

Pepper felt a blush creep up into her cheeks. She wasn't sure what to say to that, so she decided on, "Where are you planning on taking me?"

"Somewhere where I can get to know you better?" he said, more as if it were a suggestion.

"I'm not sure how I'm supposed to take that statement…" said Pepper, looking questioningly at Trent. He was still looking mischievously at her.

"Bookstore?" asked Trent, ignoring Pepper's statement. He turned and started walking and she followed. They entered a tiny bookstore that Pepper didn't catch the name of. The tall, narrow bookshelves were packed with old volumes and a musty smell. In the back of the shop there were three very overstuffed armchairs around a small wooden table. Trent took a seat unceremoniously in one of the chairs. He was still grinning at Pepper. She took the armchair across from hi, curling her legs under her.

"So tell me about yourself, Pepper," said Trent.

"I thought you already knew everything about me," Pepper retorted. "You seemed to last night."

"I know that you live with your aunts, the Charmed Ones," he said. "I know that you're Pepper Halliwell-Black, daughter of Prue Halliwell and convicted murderer Sirius Black."

"I also live with my uncle, my baby cousin and one of my best friends Hermione Granger."

"Your eyes are grey, your hair is black, and you are tall and gorgeous."

"And what about you, Trent Holbrook? I don't know much about you either," Pepper said.

And so he told her. They sat there and talked for a while, and flirted for an even longer while. It wasn't until Pepper looked at her watch that the two of them realized how late it had gotten.

Trent stood, walked over to her chair, took her hands, and helped her to stand. They donned the clothing that was draped over their chairs; as it had gotten hotter in the store they had removed coats, gloves and scarves.

The sun was waning in the sky when they went outside. "How did it get so late?" Pepper wondered aloud.

Trent slipped a black-gloved hand into Pepper's, smiling down cheekily at her. "I guess we're just too compatible," he said.

Pepper wasn't sure about that. Sure, they had talked and flirted for hours, but there had been a lot of silences in those hours, some of them awkward and some not. She wasn't quite sure what she wanted to do with Trent yet.

It was obvious, however, by the time they got back to Hogwarts, that Trent knew intentions with Pepper. Trent followed Hermione up to the seventh floor, and to the portrait of the Fat Lady.

"This is my stop," said Pepper.

Without speaking, Trent leaned forward to kiss her full on the mouth, but Pepper turned her head to the side so he kissed her cheek.

He pretended like he meant for that to happen. "I'll see you, Pepper," he said. "Thanks for today."

With a last smile, he was gone.

Pepper, feeling a smile picking up the corners of her own mouth, decided to go to Hermione and Draco's common room. She always ended up going there. It was an unspoken meeting place for Harry, Ron, Pepper, Draco, Blaise, Hermione and Pepper.

Pepper uttered the password to the portrait and entered. All of her friends plus Candie were there, scattered over couches and chairs. Only Hermione was sitting in a chair at a table, flipping through books intently.

"Do any of you ever do any work?" Pepper asked as she took a seat on a couch herself.

"You're one to talk," said Draco.

"So how was your time with Trent?" Harry wondered. Candie snuggled up closer to his chest.

Pepper fought back a sneer. "It was fun," she replied simply.

"But…?" said Hermione from her seat at the table, not even turning to look at Pepper as she spoke to her.

Pepper was somewhat taken aback, as were the other people in the room.

When Pepper didn't reply to her, Hermione turned around and looked at her. Pepper didn't know how well Hermione had gotten to know her over the last year.

"_But_," Pepper stressed the repeated word, "I don't know if I'd like to get serious with him."

"That was sort of creepy," said Harry.


	4. Chapter Four: When Demons Attack

**A/N:** Life's been so busy! Please stick with me, guys and gals, I'm churning out these things as fast as life allows!

Thanks for all your reviews. I love you guys!

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**Chapter Four**

In the true art of procrastination, Pepper had her schoolbag under her bed and her mother's diaries spread across the duvet.

She had pulled out the diaries in a fit of nostalgia because she wanted to feel a connection to her mother again. For some reason she had no attention span today. Therefore, the diary rereading had commenced.

_Dear Diary,_

_I love love. Today Sirius and I took a walk by the lake, just the two of us. Finding a moment alone with him has been rare these past few weeks. Since exams are coming and Sirius has NEWTs, the two of us have been studying with Lily, James, Peter and Remus. Have a feeling that Remus doesn't need to study; he absorbs information like a sponge when he hears it in class. Sometimes I wonder why James got to be Head Boy and Remus didn't._

Pepper had been wondering if she should show some of these diaries to Harry. At least Pepper had known her mother and father, Harry hadn't known his at all. And the only memory he had seen of his father gave him a bad impression. He needed to know all of the good qualities of his father.

_But I've gotten off subject. The walk. It was wonderful to spend time alone with Sirius, away from studying and James. Don't get me wrong, I love James, but when Sirius is around him he tents to act more…childish. He and James are always planning pranks or telling jokes. I mean, they're funny and all, but I prefer Sirius's intelligent side. I don't think he likes to show his bright side, but he's actually very intellectual. I love how he can switch his personalities so quickly, though sometimes it's not such a good thing._

_Ah, look at this; I've gotten off subject once again. Once I get started on Sirius I just can't stop. What was I talking about? Oh, yes, our wonderful walk. Oops, I don't have time for it; I'm being called for dinner!_

_I'll write about it later._

_Love,_

_Prue_

Pepper wished she could have known her parents when they were together. She wished her father hadn't spent a good part of his life in jail. She wished she could see both her mother and her father again.

And that's when an idea came to her. Last year, she and Harry had discovered a curse that would allow them to bring back Sirius, Pepper's father and Harry's godfather, for a mere seventy-two hours. But that was life threatening, and Pepper had just thought of a much easier way to see _both_ of her parents and perhaps even Harry's parents as well: summon them.

Her aunts summoned Grams all the time, even if it was just for a little while, and Pepper's grandmother had even been allowed to come back to earth for a day to attend Piper's wedding. The answer was so _simple_. Pepper chastised herself now for not thinking of the solution before.

Pocketing the diary in her robes, she vaulted off of her bed and hurried into the common room to tell Harry. However, Harry was not in the common room, nor was Ron. At this time of night, they were usually in the common room finishing up bits of homework or playing a game of Wizard's Chess. Pepper figured that they were visiting Hermione in her common room.

Thus, she headed up that way quickly to tell Harry her plan, abandoning her homework completely.

As usual, Candie was with Harry. Blaise, Hermione, Ron, Draco, Trent and Mystic were also with Harry. "Hi," Pepper greeted the group with a wave, her spirits slightly dampened by the fact that Harry was surrounded. She wasn't sure if she wanted to reveal her plan in front of everyone present, especially Candie. She didn't want to say anything in front of Candie.

Instead she asked, "Has anyone finished that massive load of homework?" She took a seat on the arm of the easy chair Draco was artfully draped in. Hermione, Blaise, and Ron were engaged in what seemed to be a very heated argument and Harry and Candie were wrapped up in each other, so Pepper wasn't sure if anyone was actually paying attention to what she was saying.

Draco inclined his head towards Trent. "He was looking for you," he said.

Pepper glanced at Trent, who gave her a smile. He was sitting in an armchair on the other side of the fire and came over to stand next to Pepper, wrapping his arm around her shoulders. Draco rolled his eyes.

Pepper, not sure how she felt about this situation, leaned forward to try and loosen Trent's grip on her shoulders. "Hey Harry," she said, choosing not to say anything to Trent.

Harry turned from his coddling of Candie to look at Pepper. "I need to talk to you later," she said. Harry nodded in acknowledgement, then turned back to his girlfriend.

That was when the room filled with demons. They appeared everywhere, surrounding the nine teenagers in a circle. There were about ten of them, of all shapes and sizes, but all of them ugly. At first glance, Pepper guessed them to be lower level demons, for they didn't resemble humans at all. And after her first glance, she skyrocketed from where she sat.

Screams filled the room as quickly as the demons had and the first thing Pepper did was to freeze the room. She had to freeze it twice: the part of the room in front of her and the part behind her. Everything and everyone froze except for Harry, courtesy of his private Defense Against the Dark Arts lessons last year.

"Pepper, what the hell is going on?" he asked in a rush, standing up quickly and pulling out his wand.

"I have no idea," said Pepper worriedly. She removed herself from the circle of Trent's arm. "Just fight like hell. They're unfreezing."

The demons and students unfroze at the same time and the demons were the first to attack. Pepper whirled around on her heel and refroze the demon behind her. She glanced around quickly for something to telekinetically throw at the demon. Spotting a lamp, she squinted at it and sent it flying towards the now-unfrozen demon. It was fairly ineffective, but the demon turned its attention to Draco, who was already battling another one of the ugly creatures. Pepper whipped around again to see how her friends were faring. She tried to freeze the room again, but it only resulted in the good guys freezing in mid-spell casting; the demons seemed to have already found a way to block it. She quickly unfroze the room.

Strings of colored light filled the room and Pepper pulled out her own wand from her pocket to join in the fray, sending her mother's diary flying from her robes. She had no time to pick it up, however, as she deflected a demon's approaching electricity ball.

"What the hell are these things, Black?" yelled Blaise.

"Demons!" Candie replied.

Had Pepper not been currently tackling off two particularly nasty looking demons, she would have fired an acidic comment Candie's way. Out of the corner of her eye, Pepper saw that Candie was trying to summon the air in the room into wind to throw at the demons. An electricity ball grazed Pepper's shoulder from the left, exploding in a yellow-orange burst on the wall behind Pepper. She reeled back from the blow, letting down her guard slightly as she grasped her shoulder, gnashing her teeth together from the pain.

Suddenly, all of the demons began chanting in unison, ceasing their fighting. Baffled, Pepper, Ron, Hermione, Harry, Trent, Candie, Blaise, Mystic, and Draco kept firing spells at the demons, but they just bounced off a force field that was beginning to glow around the circle of demons, firing back at the students and making them duck. Pepper heard a few cries of pain before there was a bright flash of white-blue light and the room spun around Pepper, the floor dropping out from underneath her and the sound of wind rushing past her ears.

She landed heavily on her bottom, pain reverberating up her spine and throughout her body. She heard grunts and groans around her as people found their limbs. Looking up, Pepper saw that all eight of her peers were around her and moving. However, her arm still hurt and was bleeding where the electricity ball hit it. She stood tentatively, testing her feet.

"Is everyone alright?" Hermione asked. Everyone else was getting to their feet as well.

_I think so _was the general agreement.

"What in the bloody hell just happened?" Ron asked. "How did demons get into Hogwarts and send us….somewhere?"

"It looks like we're still in Hogwarts," said Hermione, looking around. The rest of them followed suit. It appeared that they were in a Hogwarts corridor, only a few floors away of where they'd been a few minutes ago.

"How did the demons move us here?" Candie wondered aloud.

"Well they all started chanting…I'm assuming it was a transporting spell of some sort," said Pepper.

"Are those things what Professor Giancarlo was teaching us about last year?" Mystic asked.

"Yes," said Harry. "Didn't think you'd actually ever see one, did you?" He cracked a sardonic smile in Mystic's direction.

"No, those were really scary looking," said Mystic, and she moved a step closer to Blaise for comfort.

"Well why don't we go back up there," suggested Draco.

"I agree," said Trent, now standing next to Pepper. He slung his arm loosely around her waist.

Pepper decided she could live with this for now. "Then let's go," she said.

And with Draco leading the group, the nine of them trudged three floors upstairs to the rooms of the head boy and head girl. Unfortunately, when they got there, there was a different portrait hanging on the wall.

Her brow furrowed, Hermione stepped up to the portrait alongside Draco. They tried their password, but nothing worked.

"How could demons change our password and portrait?" Hermione muttered, mostly to herself. "And why would they _want _to?"

"Maybe we should go to Professor Dumbledore," said Harry.

Accordingly, they turned around and started in the direction of the Headmaster's office, voicing their opinions on everything that could've happened. No theory made very much sense, and they all began to get worried.

They didn't run into anyone in the hallway until they were only a corridor away from their destination. A group of seven was walking towards them, chatting and laughing amongst themselves. All of them were dressed in Gryffindor apparel. Pepper didn't know any of the people until the two students in the front of the pack showed their faces.

Pepper stopped dead in her tracks and grabbed Harry's arm, squeezing it hard. Her face paled considerably and a lump formed uncomfortably in her throat. "Harry," she squeaked out. Harry looked at the two and then paled himself. Then he ran the rest of the way to Dumbledore's office, Pepper right behind him, not allowing the group of seven to see his face.

Everyone else followed, looking questionably at Pepper and Harry. "What was that all about?" Ron wondered.

Pepper waited until after the Gryffindors had turned a corner before answering. "Did you guys see who that was?" she asked. Her eyes were as wide as dinner plates.

"We were too busy chasing after you two to notice," said Blaise. "Was there something special about them?"

"I think the demons did something very bad," said Harry. His expression almost matched Pepper's.

"Just spit it out already," said Ron, impatient. "Who were those people?"

"I think we're in the past," said Pepper quietly.

Harry finished for her. "Those people were our parents."


	5. Chapter Five: Past Parents

**A/N: Yay! Longer chapter in a shorter update period!**

**I hope you're all happy. I worked hard on this chapter to get it out soon. And it's like 7 pages long. Yay me. And you guys aka reviewers because you ROCK!**

**I know the time travel thing was sorta predictable, but what's life without a little time travel?**

**IMPORTANT NOTE: I think that I'm going to move this back to the Charmed section. I seem to be getting more readers there. So starting with the next chapter THIS STORY WILL BE BACK I N THE CHARMED SECTION OKAY?**

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Chapter Five

"You have got to be kidding me," said Hermione, looking over her shoulder in the direction the group had gone. Then she looked back to her friends. "We should still go to Dumbledore."

"We don't know the password," Mystic said.

"In our time it's always some sort of candy," said Harry. "Maybe back…in the past…it was a candy too."

Rattling off the names of magical candies, the statue finally revealed the stone staircase at "Licorice Wands." The nine then climbed up to the Headmaster's door, unasked questions flying like Firebolts in their heads.

They all stood nervously outside the door while Harry knocked. Dumbledore's voice drifted under the heavy wooden door, inviting them inside. Harry opened the door cautiously, looking back at the group with a wavering smile before opening the door wide and stepping in.

Dumbledore looked much the same as he did in the future, albeit a bit more confused at the sight of nine strangers entering his office. His long slender fingers were together on his desk, he looked at the students questioningly, warm blue eyes twinkling as they always did.

"Why, I don't believe I've had the pleasure," he said calmly. With a wave of his wand, he transfigured seven objects from his disheveled desk into soft, overstuffed armchairs, which came to rest alongside the other two chairs by the desk. "Have a seat," he offered with a smile and a gesture of his hand.

Harry, Pepper, Hermione, Ron, Candie, Mystic, Blaise, Draco, and Trent all sat down hesitantly, still shaky from the idea of being transported to the past by a group of ugly demons.

"I'm Professor Dumbledore. What can I help you with?" Dumbledore asked, looking kindly at the nine faces.

They all exchanged tentative glances. "Well, you see, sir," Harry began. "We're…er…"

"From the future," finished Pepper. Her heart was fluttering threateningly against her ribcage. She was sure that everyone was able to hear the loud _tha-thump_ and she crossed her arms over her chest.

Draco continued, "We were sent here by—"

"A spell," said Hermione quickly, cutting Draco off and giving him a warning glare.

"A spell we don't know how to reverse," added Ron.

"I see," said Dumbledore pensively. "I'm afraid no spell or potion that allows for time travel has been created as of yet. However, you are all welcome to stay here at Hogwarts until we figure this mess out. I trust you attend Hogwarts in the future?"

The group nodded collectively.

"Are you telling us that there is absolutely no way to get back to the future?" said Mystic, sounding panicked. Blaise put a reassuring hand on her arm.

"At the present time, it seems that there is no way to get you back," Dumbledore said in his usual calm voice. "I assure you that we will find a way to send you back to your time. Seeing as I'm not sure how long that will take, I suggest that you attend Hogwarts as you normally would. We have extra accommodations and I don't believe the classes are too different than the ones you attend in the future."

Pepper looked around at the faces surrounding her to see if they were as wary about this idea as she was. Though, once she thought about it, they didn't have any idea how to get home.

"That's very generous of you, sir," said Hermione, saving the day for all of them. "It would be wonderful if we could stay here. Our only affliction is that…um…" Hermione looked around the room for assistance.

Harry continued for her. "If certain people see us, it may change the future drastically."

A small smile crept onto Dumbledore's face. "Not to worry, there is a spell at my dispense to change your appearances for as long as you are here."

Pepper perked up a little at this news. So what if they were stuck in the past? This was an opportunity for she, Harry _and_ Draco to all get to know their parents. And they could do it all while looking like other people, with different names.

Once again, the nine looked at each other, contemplating. Mystic seemed to be against the idea. Her face was scrunched up and she looked worried.

"Let's do it," said Pepper. Harry, Draco, Blaise, Hermione and Ron nodded their assent. Candie, Mystic and Trent were skeptical and didn't do or say anything.

"Wonderful," said Dumbledore. With a smile, he rose from his desk and walked over to the bookshelf on the far right of his office. Skimming over the titles with a crooked finger for a few moments, he finally found the book he was looking for and pulled it from the shelf.

Behind his desk again, he cracked open the volume and flipped a few pages. "Each of you needs to write down exactly what you wish to look like on a slip of parchment," Dumbledore explained, and conjured nine pieces of parchment and nine quills out of thin air.

They all sat back down with their parchment and quills and began to think.

"If you will all excuse me for a few moments, it is dinnertime in the Great Hall and I must attend," said Dumbledore, rising gracefully from his chair. "This should give you sufficient time to decide on your new identities."

With a warm smile, he was gone.

Pepper let out a deep breath. "Is everyone ready for this?" she asked quietly.

"Why would we be?" Harry said with a wry smile. He was trying to throw some humor into the thickening tension.

Ron gave a half-hearted laugh. "Harry's right," he said.

"But we've got to be now," Hermione almost whispered. They were all talking quietly; as if talking in a normal tone would mean that this was all real. Most of them hoped this was all a dream.

"It seems we'd better get to writing these," said Blaise. "I s'pose we'll need new names, too."

"Should some of us be siblings?" Hermione wondered. "I mean, wouldn't it look strange for nine completely unrelated people to arrive mysteriously at Hogwarts?"

"Good idea, Hermione," remarked Harry. Their voices were getting more confident now.

When it was decided that Pepper, Draco and Harry; Hermione, Trent and Blaise; Mystic and Candie were going to be siblings, and Ron would be by himself, they got into groups and began writing their new appearances on the scraps of parchment given to them.

When Dumbledore returned with a bucket full of potion in hand, their parchment pieces were filled and names were picked. "Are you all ready?" asked Dumbledore.

When they nodded, Dumbledore placed the wooden bucket on his desk. "You need to do this one at a time," he instructed.

Draco decided to go first. They each had to drop their pieces of paper into the bucket of green liquid and shut their eyes tight, imagining their new appearance while Dumbledore muttered the spell from the book.

Pepper, Draco and Harry were the first three with new looks. As identical triplets, they were tall, sandy-blonde, and celery-green-eyed, with small noses, pink lips and pale skin. Pepper had made herself less curvy than she'd been before, and when she looked in the mirror hanging on one of Dumbledore's walls, she gasped at her new appearance. It did not look like her at all. And yet, when Pepper turned her head, the reflection in the mirror did too. This was getting a little too weird for her.

Hermione, Blaise were fraternal twins with brown eyes, dark red hair and Blaise's normal Italian skin coloring. Hermione's hair was long, hanging in perfect ringlets. Her frame was petite, and she had a tiny upturned nose. Ron's mouth dropped open in surprise.

"You're hot, Granger," said Draco.

Hermione glared at him.

Trent, as Hermione and Blaise's younger brother, had brown hair and brown eyes. He was on the short side, like his siblings, and had their same nose and mouth.

Mystic and Candie went next. They had light brown, wavy hair, tall curvy bodies, and brilliant blue eyes.

Ron was blonde with dark brown eyes. He was tall, but not as lanky as he had been before.

They were all stunned, nonplussed by who was who.

"Have you all decided on new names?" wondered Dumbledore, with a slightly amused smile at the looks on the teenagers' faces.

"We have," said Hermione. Her voice was slightly lower, more seductive, than it had been before. Ron looked like he wanted to jump on her right then and there. "I'm Evaline Hamilton."

Trent said, "I'll be Forrest Hamilton."

"I suppose that makes me Ryo Hamilton," said Blaise.

"My name is Jake Wyndham," Harry said.

"I'm Julius Wyndham," Draco drawled.

"And I'm Jazelle Wyndham," said Pepper, surprised to hear a British accent come from her mouth. She nearly laughed at her own voice.

"That means I'm Tyler Rockwell," said Ron.

Candie said, "I guess I'm Ophelia Stockton."

Mystic ended their list. "That would make me Rachel Stockton."

"Are all of you going to be in the same house?" Dumbledore asked.

They all looked at each other. None of them had talked about that yet. Pepper desperately wanted to be in Gryffindor so that she could get to know her parents, and she was sure that Harry did too. Hermione and Ron would probably want to be in Gryffindor, too.

However, Pepper wasn't sure about Draco, Blaise, Trent, Candie and Mystic. She knew that Draco and Blaise were dead-set against Gryffindor as a house, and she suspected that Candie felt the same way. By the way Trent had been acting she figured that he would want to be anywhere that she was.

She also wanted them all to stick together. They were now in a school full of strangers from the past, and Pepper was afraid that they wouldn't keep their stories straight or one of them would let slip something about the future. She wanted them all to be in the same house so that they could keep one another in check.

"Yes," Pepper said in answer to Dumbledore's question. "Gryffindor."

"You are _not _making me a Gryffindor," Draco/Julius said sharply. Blaise/Ryo heartily agreed.

"Pep…er…_Jazelle_ has the right idea: we shouldn't split up," said Hermione/Evaline. "We're totally out of our league here and we should stay together."

"That sounds good to me," added Harry/Jake.

Draco/Julius grumbled incoherently.

"Wonderful," said Dumbledore. "It seems to be settled then: you are all going to be placed in Gryffindor. We have plenty of extra dormitories. Are all of you in the same year?"

"No, sir," said Hermione/Evaline. "Forrest is in sixth year and the rest of us are in seventh."

"You will find your Gryffindor dorms prepared for you," said Dumbledore. "Robes and school uniforms are on your beds. This coming Saturday you may go to the village of Hogsmeade to purchase clothing and other necessities. Your rooms are the ninth door on the right. I warned the students of your coming at dinner. The students of Gryffindor, you'll find, are very accommodating." At this, Dumbledore smiled knowingly. "If any of you need anything, you can simply come and visit me. I will use all of my sources to find you a way to get home.

"The password to the Gryffindor common room is _troll mole_. Today is Tuesday, February fifth. Your schedules will be given to you tomorrow at breakfast."

"Thank you, sir," they all said in unison. They got up and left the headmaster's office, full of worry and nervousness.

Ron and Hermione held hands tightly for support as the nine made their way to the Gryffindor common room. Pepper bit her lip in anxiousness until it drew blood. A million questions darted through her head, threatening to spill out of her ears. She hoped that her parents liked her. And she really hoped that none of them spoiled the future. Though, she wondered how drastically the future would be changed if she slipped a clue to her parents about how they die…

She shook her head to knock the thought away. Instead, she ran their new names through her head repeatedly so she wouldn't slip up.

Luckily, they didn't run into anyone in the hallways. "This is weird," Pepper/Jazelle whispered.

"I know," Harry/Jake whispered back.

The portrait of the Fat Lady still hung at the entrance to the Gryffindor common room. "Is everybody ready?" Hermione/Evaline asked quietly. "Remember our new names."

"I can't believe I'm going to be a Gryffindor," Draco/Julius mumbled. Hermione/Evaline hit him with her elbow.

"Troll mole," said Ron/Tyler.

The portrait swung open to admit them and they stepped inside the common room cautiously. There were a few people scattered in chairs and tables around the room, all of them bent over homework or with their backs turned to the new Gryffindors. Pepper's eyes scanned the heads for a familiar one. Harry was doing the same, and she grabbed his hand and squeezed it tightly; they being the only two nervous about meeting their dead parents. He squeezed hers back. Candie/Ophelia glared at Pepper. Pepper pretended not to notice.

Her eyes landed on a head of unruly black hair and one of vibrant red. Harry squeezed her hand tighter.

"Oy, you must be the new students," said one student suddenly as he spotted them from his seat by the fireplace.

That's when all of the students in the common room turned and the nine, especially Harry, were deer in the headlights.

Most of the students came and introduced themselves to the new students, except for Lily and James. When the swarm of people cleared The Nine made their way over to the couches, by the seat James and Lily were sharing. By the looks of it, they were just snogging. The Nine should have just headed up to their dormitories, but Harry led them over to the couch area. He wanted to meet his parents. They only time he had seen them had been when they were shouting at each other, and he hadn't really _been there_.

Lily and James looked up when then new students took seats nearby. James wiped the lipstick before saying hello. "Hi," he greeted. The Nine turned their attention to Harry's father.

Harry's eyes lit up and he reached for Pepper's hand again to squeeze. "I'm Ha..Jake," he said. He reached the hand that wasn't attached to Pepper's for James to shake. Harry's hand was shaking as James grabbed and shook it.

"James," James introduced.

Time seemed to freeze as father and son's hands went up and down, up and down in a shake. Harry/Jake looked like he was going to cry. He squeezed Pepper's hand more tightly.

"I'm Lily," Harry's mother introduced with a wave from her spot on the couch. Her feet were tucked under her, her hair a little messy from snogging her boyfriend. She pressed her lips together to hide the fact that her lipstick was smeared.

Pepper cleared her throat before speaking, afraid the overwhelming emotion would be present in her voice. "I'm Jazelle, Jake's sister. This is our other brother Julius." She pointed to Draco and then continued with her introductions, pointing at each person in turn. "This is Evaline, Ryo, Forrest, Ophelia, Tyler, and Rachel."

"So you're the new students Dumbledore was telling us about at dinner," James said.

Harry/Jake nodded.

"And you've all been sorted into Gryffindor," said Lily skeptically.

Hermione/Evaline had already prepared an answer for this question. While the rest of them sat clueless, she said, "In our old school there were no houses, it was just one big student body. When Professor Dumbledore asked us if we wanted to be sorted, we said that we all wanted to stick together. We're not used to being apart."

"James, why don't you get everyone else? I think they're in your dormitory," Lily said quietly to James. He complied, getting up from the couch and going in the direction of the boys' dormitories.

"Everyone else?" Mystic/Rachel asked. Pepper was irritated to find that she still had the piercing banshee-like voice she had had when she was Mystic.

"In our group of mates," Lily replied. "I figure you're all used to big groups of friends, so I'll overwhelm you with ours since you're overwhelming James and I with yours." She grinned.

Pepper's heart skipped a beat. Her mother was going to come down the stairs. Her father was going to come down the stairs. She was going to meet her parents when they were in love. Before her father was accused of betraying his best friends and killing them. Before her father was sent to Azkaban. Before her mother gave up on love.

Pepper's eyes were glued to the boys' dormitory staircase. Lily was talking to everyone, but all Pepper could hear was a ringing in her ears.

Her mother was coming down the staircase almost backwards, laughing at something. And there was Pepper's father, right behind her, laughing as well, shaking his shaggy black-haired head. Pepper's eyes filled with tears and she squeezed Harry's hand so hard that the bones ground together. Harry recoiled at once and turned his head to look where Pepper was.

Pepper's breath caught in her throat and she found it hard to breathe as Sirius, Prue, Remus, James and Peter came down the staircase. She stood up. Lily did too.

"This is Sirius, Remus, Peter, and Prue," Lily introduced.

It was all Pepper could do not to launch herself at her parents and crush them with hugs. Instead, she grabbed Harry's hand again.

"I'm Jazelle," she said throatily.

"It's nice to meet you," said Prue.

If Pepper hadn't known that, at this time, Prudence Halliwell was a mere twelve years old, she would have mistaken her for fifteen. Prue looked more mature than she actually was, she held herself tall, and she already had breasts. Pepper was stunned.

She looked over at her father, Sirius Black, aged seventeen. Pepper could see why he attracted so much attention. He had shaggy black hair and lazy, laughing eyes.

Pepper was proud to see that she looked exactly like her parents did at this age.

The introductions of Pepper's friends were made, and Pepper vaguely heard Harry/Jake and Hermione/Evaline excusing The Nine to bed, they were all tired. Pepper was still in an awed daze as she followed Hermione/Evaline, Mystic/Rachel and Candie/Ophelia up the girls' dormitory staircase, to the ninth door on the right.

Their room had everything that Dumbledore said they would have. Mystic and Candie went straight to bed, but Hermione and Pepper took their time changing into pajamas.

After Pepper got ready to sleep, she climbed into her four-poster and lay on her back, staring at the red canopy. She couldn't sleep. She didn't _want_ to sleep for fear that this dream-come-true would disappear when she awoke in the morning.

When an hour or more had passed and sleep hadn't come, Pepper heard a whisper in the dark. "Pepper?" It was Hermione.

Pepper pulled back the curtain of her bed and came face-to-face with Hermione/Evaline. "I'm going to see Harry and Ron. Do you want to come with me?"

Pepper nodded and the two girls made their way out of the dormitory. The common room was empty; the clock read midnight, so they had no trouble sneaking into Harry, Ron, Draco, Blaise and Trent's room. The problem was finding Harry and Ron's beds.

The first bed they looked in was by the door, but it turned out to be Trent/Forrest's. "What do you see in him?" Hermione asked quietly as they moved to the next bed.

Pepper glared at him with her new Jazelle eyes. Hermione glared back at her with her own Evaline eyes. Pepper gave in. "I'm not sure if I do see anything," she replied.

A head poked out from a curtain. A head that Pepper took a minute to recognize because it looked a lot like her own new head. Harry.

"Pepper? Hermione?" whispered the head. Hermione and Pepper went over to Harry's bed. Harry opened the curtain and they jumped into his bed. Ron was in the curtains too, and he moved over to let them sit.

"You couldn't sleep either?" Ron asked.

"How can anyone sleep?" Pepper said. "We're in the _past_. Harry and I just met our _parents_."

"And we can bet that Draco's going to meet his tomorrow," said Hermione

"My mum was right there, and I shook my father's _hand_," Harry whispered in awe.

"This is all very mind-boggling."

**A/N: REMEMBER THIS IS MOVING BACK TO THE CHARMED SECTION!**


	6. Chapter Six: Cracked Candie

**A/N: Don't worry, I'm still alive! I'm so sorry for it taking so long but I had finals and then I went to England and Scotland and saw Platform 9 3/4 and places where they shot the movies and the tea shop where J.K. first started writing the books! Then I went to the beach and there was just all sort of stuff. But I'm still alive! So keep reading please!**

**Love,**

**Flyaway Dove**

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPH

**Chapter Six**

Waking up the next morning was difficult because Pepper only had about an hour of sleep in her. She felt a weight on her leg and opened her eyes reluctantly to find that Harry's leg was sprawled across hers. Then she realized that her head was resting on Harry's chest, and her arm was across his stomach.

"Did you hear them coming in here last night?"

"No, but I bet they're all in bed together."

"I like orgies, why didn't they invite me?"

"Oh you're disgusting."

The voices of the rest of Pepper's friends were right outside the closed curtains of Jake/Harry's new bed. Evaline/Hermione and Tyler/Ron were curled tightly around one another at the foot of the bed.

Pepper made a move to extract herself from her new brother Jake, but not before the curtains were ripped open, letting in light and the angry new face of Ophelia/Candie. Jake groaned and flung his arm up over his eyes that no longer needed glasses to see. Ophelia let out a snarl at the position she saw her boyfriend and his sister Jazelle in, and Pepper decided to take her time moving her head and arm to irk her as much as possible.

At Ophelia's angry sound, Evaline and Tyler woke up straightaway, almost rolling off of the bed. Pepper's other new brother Julius/Draco, and Ryo/Blaise were standing, amused, behind the angry girl. Behind them, Pepper could see Rachel/Mystic, but she didn't see any sign of her…well, Forrest/Trent anywhere.

Seeing as Pepper was yawning and prolonging moving her limbs, Ophelia's pretty face became more and more contorted and angry. Finally, she shrieked, "GET YOUR FUCKING HANDS OFF HIM!"

That made everyone in the room jump. This time, Tyler really did fall off of the bed. Jake woke up quickly at this exclamation, and Pepper smirked as she removed her head from his chest and her arm from across his stomach. She had finally gotten the queen of condescending words to crack.

Ophelia ranted at her boyfriend Jake all the way down to breakfast. Pepper's Jazelle face was smirking, though Forrest, who was holding her hand loosely, did not look too happy. There wasn't enough room in Pepper's mind right now to worry about what to do with this boy just yet; she was too focused on the fact that they were stuck in the past with her parents.

The Great Hall was livelier than Pepper had ever seen it. People from Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Gryffindor were walking back and forth between the three tables, conversing with people from different houses. The Slytherin table still only consisted of Slytherins, however.

"This is the way it should be," said Evaline satisfactorily.

"Yeah, but Slytherin's still evil," muttered Tyler.

"If you'll recall, we are now friends with Slytherins," Evaline snapped back.

Ryo was looking longingly at the Slytherin table. "That's where we should be sitting, mate," he said, nudging Julius.

Chuckling, Pepper looked over at Julius to find his face hard and absolutely Draco-like. She followed his scowling eyes to the end of the Slytherin table, where a platinum blonde was drawing the attention of a crowd of Slytherins. A low growling sound bubbled up from deep in Julius's throat. "My father," he whispered throatily. Evaline put a hand on his shoulder and steered him further into the Great Hall.

"Hey Jake, come sit over here!"

The red-haired Lily was calling to her son, who very willingly went and sat down next to her. The rest of his friends and siblings followed suit, taking up a large part of the empty Gryffindor table.

Pepper sat down next to Prue, who was engaged in a conversation with Remus. Pepper wanted to reach out and touch her mother just to make sure this was all real, but instead she settled on filling her plate with food, stealing glances of Prue from the corner of her eye every few seconds. She had to fight back a smile by chewing furiously on her bacon. Jake was engaged in a conversation with his own mother, and Pepper saw that he was fighting back a large grin as well. Julius, however, was still glaring angrily at his father.

Sirius and James flounced over from the Ravenclaw table. "Morning," Sirius greeted with a wide grin, waving a croissant in the direction of The Nine. He squeezed himself in between Pepper and Prue, flashing a dashing grin at Pepper before kissing his girlfriend on the cheek. She rested her head on his shoulder. Pepper glanced across the table at Evaline, who was looking slightly forlorn.

"You two are in love, aren't you?" The question came from Rachel, who was sitting next to Evaline with her chin in her palms.

Pepper thought that this was a rather odd question to be coming from this random girl that Ryo had picked up, but then she decided that she may have too judgmental of Mystic-turned-Rachel. After all, she seemed to be handling their current situation quite well.

Both Prue and Sirius looked at her, slightly surprised. Then Prue's expression softened and she smiled and nodded. "Yes," she giggled. "I'm glad it's that obvious."

Sirius kissed her full on the mouth and Pepper beamed. She could handle being in the past for a little while.

**HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPH**

Paige, Piper, and Phoebe paced the length of Dumbledore's office while Ginny sat in a chair, her face in her hands. As usual, Professor Dumbledore was seated calmly behind his desk, waiting for the Halliwell sisters to finish their ranting.

"Why is it so easy to loose our niece?" Piper asked loudly to no one in particular. She was on the brink of being furious. "How many times in the past two years have we not known where she was? How many times has she gotten in trouble?"

"She wasn't _alone_, either; she was with _eight_ other people!" Phoebe was saying. "How do NINE people disappear into thin air?"

"They could be anywhere!" Paige stressed. "We don't know if they ran away, or were kidnapped, or were transported to another galaxy…"

Ginny didn't say anything.

When the headmaster decided that the Halliwells had ranted enough, he cleared his throat loudly. They didn't even notice he was doing this until the third time it was repeated. After they got quiet, though Piper was still fuming silently, Dumbledore said, "Ladies, can you please take a seat while I explain to you what I know."

The sisters sat in the chairs across from Dumbledore. Ginny looked up from her hands to pay attention to what Dumbledore had to say.

"It appears that there was an attack in the Head Boy and Head Girl's common room," he explained.

"What kind of attack?" Phoebe asked, panicked.

"Judging from the burn marks on the walls and furniture, we have determined that it was probably demons."

"Why would demons want to attack?" Piper asked. "I thought that there were extra barriers around the school to prevent them from getting in."

"I assure you there are, Mrs. Halliwell," said Dumbledore.

"Do you have any idea where they could be?" Ginny asked quietly.

Dumbledore looked over at the sixth-year Weasley. "I am sorry to say that I do not at this point in time, Miss Weasley."

"Well who's missing besides Pepper, Harry, Hermione and Ron?" Paige wondered. "Are the others connected to those four in any way? Was that the only demon attack?"

"The only evidence of a demon attack is in the heads' common room," Dumbledore explained. "I am not sure if there was one attack, as I am not familiar with all the relationships of the students. Mr. Draco Malfoy also disappeared, but he is Head Boy, and so he was probably in the common room at the time. Perhaps you can inform me if one of them was in a relationship with the following people: Blaise Zabini, Candie Lowell, Trent Holbrook, or Mystic McCarthy.

"I know that Pepper and Blaise were becoming friends," Piper said. She's written about him in a few of her letters. "But I don't think that I've heard of any of the others."

Piper looked over at Ginny questionably, and Ginny took over on telling what she knew. "Harry was dating Candie Lowell and I know that Pepper and Trent met at…er…Hogsmeade the other day." Ginny didn't want to let slip that Draco and Hermione had held a party in their room the other night, considering that was against the rules. She continued, "I've never heard of Mystic McCarthy, though she may have been dating Blaise or Draco. I don't know who they interact with."

"Thank you for your help," said Dumbledore. "I will—" He stopped in mid sentence, furrowing his forehead and fixing his gaze somewhere above his guests' heads.

"Professor Dumbledore?" Paige said quietly after a few moments.

He still didn't look at them when he spoke. "I seem to remember meeting nine teenagers, looking very much like the students we were just discussing, around the time that James Potter and Prue Halliwell attended Hogwarts."

**HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPH**

Because they were new students, Jazelle, Tyler, Jake, Evaline, Julius, Ophelia, Ryo and Rachel all had to sit in the empty classroom seats, which were far from their young parents. After breakfast, a forlorn Forrest had gone to his sixth-year classes while the rest of them followed Lily, James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter to their seventh-year ones.

Currently, they were in History of Magic, and Jake was passing his new sister and desk-mate Jazelle a note.

_You know we can't get too close to them while we're here._

As Pepper read this she realized that Jake was right.

**I know**, she wrote, **but that's going to be really hard to do. I've been wishing this for such a long time. I finally get to see my parents when they're in love.**

She slid the note back to her brother; making the sure the professor wasn't looking at her as she did so. Jake wrote back quickly and soon the note was in front of her again.

_I finally get to _see_ my parents. But we still can't get too close to them. We don't want to change the future, Pepper._

**Remember, _Jake_ call me Jazelle. We've got to get used to these names. Anyway, back to the subject. What if we did change the future, just a little? Would it really be that bad if we warned our parents about how they're going to die? If I warned my dad about being framed by Peter Pettigrew?**

Getting a little jumpy at her idea, Pepper bit her lip to calm herself down and remind her that she was in a classroom and had to make herself fit in. She didn't want to get in trouble on her first day. While the professor droned on about the history of the Ministry of Magic, Jake wrote back.

_As much as I would love to do that, you know we can't. We don't know what could change. If we did that then they might die some other way, or we might die, or Voldemort might still live, or we could never have met._

When Pepper read the last few words of his note, she looked over at the boy that now had a face similar to hers, and she smiled. He smiled back. Then he went back to pretending to listen and Pepper responded.

**I suppose you're right. It isn't really worth the risk, is it?**

But Pepper was thinking that it might actually be worth the risk. How much could it change the future, really? The future would be better because they would have their parents back. The only real risk would be Voldemort. If James and Lily were warned of how they died then Harry wouldn't have the chance to rid the world of Voldemort. The note came back to her as she decided that it wasn't a very good idea.

_No it's not. So don't even think about it, Pepper, because I'm just getting settled with the future we have now. If we ever get back to it, that is._

**Jake, you're supposed to call me Jazelle. Don't worry; we're going to get back to the future. I wouldn't mind spending some time here, though.**

That was when a note appeared on their desk from nowhere. Pepper unfolded it and read.

_**Why aren't you two paying attention? We still have to take our N.E.W.T.s, you know.**_

Pepper passed the note to Jake before looking over at the next desk. There sat Evaline, glaring at her two friends. Pepper smiled guiltily at her and then went back to her note with Jake, for he had written something back to her. _Me neither. I'd like to know what my parents were like. _Then the note changed subjects completely. _So what's up with you and that Trent, I mean Forrest?_

Pepper thought a moment before answering. **I'm honestly not sure. **Okay, so it wasn't an answer that really required thinking.

_Wow, you're a big help. Do you fancy him?_

Pepper's heart skipped a beat, for what reason she did not know, as she wrote her next words. **Why do you care, Harry? ** And there she went, slipping up and calling him Harry instead of Jake. Mentally reprimanding herself, she slid the note across the wooden desk. It came back to her quickly again.

_I'm not sure about this bloke, that's why. I don't want to see you get hurt again. And this guy really seems to like you. Just be careful with him, alright? He might just want to take advantage of you._

_P.S. It's Jake, remember?_


	7. Chapter Seven: Sirius Times

**Author's Note: Thank you to Lady Emerald Black, Storyreader14, charmedsisters and latinachica for your marvelous reviews!**

**I've gotten about a billion hits on this story, but I only got four reviews for the last chapter! Would you all please review me? I like feedback! I want to know how I can improve the story for your reading pleasure!**

**HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP**

Chapter Seven

**HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP**

Pepper needed help with her Potions essay. She wasn't sure whether it was due to the fact that she actually needed help, or the fact that she wanted so badly to spend time with her father that her brain drew a blank on this subject. So when she was sitting in the common room, thoroughly perplexed, sucking on the end of her quill and staring off into space, Sirius noticed her and offered to help her with the essay, much as he had done with Prue in her first days at Hogwarts. Of course, and gladly, Pepper accepted.

As Sirius explained the essay, Pepper looked more at his profile than at the parchment he was scrawling notes on. She still couldn't believe that her father was sitting next to her. For the first time since they had been thrown into the past, she wondered how they had gotten here.

Sirius saw Jazelle looking at him and he stopped in mid-sentence to turn his head and look at her. "Is there something on my face?" he joked girlishly.

Pepper giggled. "No," she replied, "I was just noticing how handsome you are." She figured there was no use in lying to him, since he already knew how good-looking he was anyway. Even though Sirius knew this for a fact, he didn't seem to know how to respond. It appeared that no one had ever said this to him out-right. "Anyway," Pepper went on, "I'd rather you tell me about Hogwarts instead of this bloody Potions essay."

Sirius grinned at her before turning in his chair to face her. "Where should I start?" he wondered.

Pepper shrugged. "Wherever."

"Well…Hogwarts is brilliant, really. I mean, if you skive off class then no one really notices or cares, except for the Headmaster, but he never drops in on classes anyhow." He glanced at his audience, before smiling slyly. "I reckon I shouldn't be telling you this. You probably want to hear about the smashing academics and brilliant Quidditch teams and the fantastic accommodations that this castle has to offer."

"Me and my mates have done our share of skiving," Pepper said, smiling.

"Yeah?" Sirius asked. "You'll fit in just fine, then."

Of course, this was the point in which Forrest decided to come over, stand behind Pepper, and wrap his arms around her neck, completely ruining the father-daughter bonding moment. Pepper resisted the urge not to smack him.

Sirius gave him a friendly wave, but stopped his conversation. "I'd best leave you two alone," he smirked, before getting up and heading up the boys' dormitory staircase.

"Thanks for the help," Pepper called after him, thoroughly miffed at Forrest.

"Anytime," Sirius said as he disappeared up the stone stairs.

"Finally, we can be alone," Forrest sighed, floating into the chair Sirius had occupied just seconds ago. He learned forward to kiss her but she turned her head deliberately and angrily. So, he set his hand on hers and said, "Pepp-er-Jazelle, what's wrong?"

She glared at him wrathfully and hissed in a low voice, "Do you not understand that I was—no, you don't understand, because you _don't know me_. You quite obviously do not understand the fact that I was just talking to _my father_ who has very recently been taken out of my life. You do not understand me at all, _Forrest_." She glared at him angrily until he got the point, became livid himself, and left.

Gathering up her things from the table haphazardly, Pepper carried them all up to her dorm room, finding Ophelia up there as well. The girl now hated Jazelle even more, and would not speak to her or her brother Jake since two days ago, when they woke up in the same bed, wrapped around one another. This was plaguing Jake, but Pepper was perfectly fine with it. In fact, she reveled in the silence.

Closing her bed curtains and spreading her work across the covers, Pepper began work on her Potions essay. Some things that Sirius had told her helped her out, and she was able to figure out other things from there. She hacked away steadily at the work until Evaline poked her head into the curtains. Pepper looked up at her friend's Italian face in question. "Its dinner time," Evaline supplied.

As per usual, The Nine met in the common room before going down to the Great Hall. Making their way to the portrait hole, Evaline looked back at the girls' dorm staircase. "Bugger, I've forgotten my robe."

"Are you cold?" Tyler asked, moving to remove his own robe.

"No. It's just…I think the skirts are shorter in this decade," she complained, tugging at the hem of her skirt.

"Cool it, Hamilton, you're hot," Julius said nonchalantly. Tyler wrapped his arm defensively around his girlfriend's shoulders. Evaline glared at Julius, but left her skirt alone. She seemed to like her new good looks very much, and was reveling in all the attention she got.

Forrest tried to sidle up to Pepper and slide his arm around her shoulders as well, but she walked a little faster, coming up alongside her brother Julius. "Help me," she whispered quietly.

Just as quietly he said, "I take it you're having problems with lover-boy."

She nodded vehemently. "He's doing things too quickly. Plus, I'm irked cos he interrupted my conversation with Sirius."

Julius nodded understandingly. "I'll take care of him."

"What are brothers for, right?" Pepper smirked. Julius looked at her with a raised eyebrow. And Julius proved his word at dinner, sitting between his sister and her pursuer.

Jake had taken to watching his parents stealthily at each meal, and whenever he got the chance. He loved to watch the dynamics between the Head Boy and Head Girl as they flirted, argued and interacted. And they did do quite a lot of arguing. At the moment, Lily was trying to convince James, once again, to stop picking on Severus Snape. "Lily, for Merlin's sake, it's just a bit of harmless fun," James was saying.

"James, you know it gets out of hand," Lily said curtly. "I don't like you picking on him."

Now Sirius joined in the conversation. "Honestly, Lily, there is no need to stick up for the lad. He's a Slytherin, and a greasy one at that. Dear Snively can defend himself."

Jake enjoyed seeing Snape at such a vulnerable age. He was still a greasy git, but he was so small and at the mercy of anyone who decided to tear the mickey out of him.

Sighing in frustration, Lily raised herself from the bench and headed out of the Great Hall. Prue got up and followed her, shooting a helpless look at her boyfriend. Deciding to follow the girls, Pepper got up as well and made her way out of the hall.

"Sometimes I really can't believe the two of them," Lily raged once she and Prue were in the Entrance Hall.

"Er…do they prank Snape all the time?" Pepper asked, trying to slip herself into the conversation.

Both Prue and Lily looked at her in slight surprise before Prue said, "Always. I'm not sure how their feud even started, but Sirius and James always do things to Snape, and Snape does things back." As Lily began pacing, her fists clenched in rage, Prue added in a whisper, "Lily can't stand it." Then she turned to her friend. "Lil, c'mon, I'm sure James won't do anything too bad. He doesn't want to loose you over Snape, and he knows how cross you get."

Lily mumbled something incoherent, but stopped her pacing. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "All right, I'll go back in; but he'd better not piss me off or, I swear, this time I'm gone."

Linking her arms with Lily, Prue shot Pepper a slightly apologetic look before she and Lily walked abreast into the Great Hall. Pepper lagged behind for a moment before slipping back in herself. What she walked into was Lily sitting next to James, her back to him and her arms crossed in defiance, with James staring across the table at Prue, flabbergasted. Pepper got closer to hear what Prue was explaining to him.

"She's really serious, James, so I think you'd better do what she says. She thinks that this thing you guys have with Snape is really getting out of hand and she honestly will break up with you if you keep this up." Sirius's mouth was open and he was also staring at his girlfriend in disbelief. Prue went on, "Lily wants me to tell you that all you are doing is getting yourself in trouble and making enemies and…you're going to make an enemy out of her if you keep it up." And with that, the two girls got up again and walked out of the Great Hall for the second time that day. Prue, once again, shoot an apologetic look over her shoulder. Lily on the other hand, walked with her nose in the air, wanting to prove a point to her boyfriend.

At the Gryffindor table, James hung his head. "Damn," he swore. "I just can't win. Padfoot," he turned sadly and seriously to his friend, "you're going to have to carry on alone, mate."

"You're bloody whipped," said Sirius in slight disgust. "You can't let Lily control you like this."

"Sorry mate." James was clearly disappointed and he hung his head again. Sirius patted him on the back. "Lily's more important to me than embarrassing Snape every spare moment."

"S'ok, Prongs, I'd do the same thing for Prue," Sirius admitted.

Remus shook his head at both of them. "I don't believe I'm hearing these words come out of your mouths," he said. "I thought the days you'd give up pulling pranks would be the day I resist a full moon." He laughed at himself, but it was obvious that this wasn't really funny to him at all.

"Yeah, well, that's love," Sirius shrugged. "You'll feel it when you find her."

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Pepper spent the rest of the night in the common room, doing her homework and eavesdropping on the conversation going on between her parents, her godparents, Remus, and Peter. They weren't having a serious conversation, but Pepper liked to hear what was going on in their lives and she enjoyed hearing their conversations. It seemed that James had promised Lily to cut down on the pranks on Snape. He hadn't promised to stop his practical jokes altogether, but he would cut down considerably. As Pepper had glanced up at the group, she saw him seal the deal with a kiss to Lily. She seemed happier.

Prue cuddled up against him, Sirius was talking with Remus as Lily and James made up. "McGonagall was close to catching us last time," Sirius said quietly. "I think we need to get out earlier."

"I don't want to risk you guys being around me before I get to the Shack," Remus replied.

"Mooney, we know how to handle you," Sirius argued. "We became Anamagi for a reason."

"I know," Remus said. "I just don't like putting you guys through that."

"Hey." Ryo slid onto the arm of Pepper's chair and greeted her softly. She looked up at him and slid over in the large overstuffed chair so that he could sit next to her.

"I'm eavesdropping," Pepper whispered.

"I see," Ryo replied, raising a dark red eyebrow. "Julius tells me that you're having troubles with lover-boy."

"He just pissed me off earlier, that's all," Pepper said. Ryo didn't saying anything for a time, so Pepper added, "And he's been rather clingy." Ryo was still silent, and Pepper said, "I think he just wants to get in my pants." Sometimes she hated when Ryo used that technique on her, it usually got her to say absolutely everything she thought about the subject because she couldn't stand the silence.

"Would you like to know what I think, Wyndham?" he said. Since Pepper's name had changed, it had taken him time to adjust from calling her 'Black'. 'Wyndham' wasn't nearly as personal as 'Black' had been, but all of Pepper's other names, (Halliwell and Lillian), were already taken by these people o the past. Pepper hadn't realized it, but she had enjoyed Blaise's pet name for her.

"Even if I don't, you'll tell me, right?"

Ryo went on as though she hadn't said anything. "I think that he fancies you and he's just trying to claim you as his own. You should see the looks he gives Jake in the dorm, they're resentful. He wants you for himself."

This pissed Pepper off. "I'm not _property_. He's such a _wanker_."

"Speak of the devil. Here comes the fecking wanker now." Ryo removed himself from the chair so that Forrest could replace him. Pepper turned herself haughtily away from him, much as Lily had earlier at the dinner table.

"Ja_zelle_," Forrest said in a quiet, pleading voice, rubbing her arm with the back of two fingers.

She turned her head and glared at him. "_What?_" she hissed back.

"I just wanted to apologize for angering you earlier."

Pepper raised an eyebrow, slightly amused. "Do you have any idea why I was pissed?" she asked.

"I interrupted the time you were having with your father," he replied. "I know that I don't know you that well, but I'd _like_ to. I really fancy you and you're not exactly giving me the chance to spend time with you."

Pepper's expression softened. She figured that he was right. "Sorry about that," she said.

"I know I'll have to be more sensitive to the relationships you want to build while you're here."

"Like now, for instance," said Pepper. "I'm trying to listen in on their conversation." She inclined her head in the direction of the gathered group of Marauders and their girlfriends.

"Sounds good," said Forrest, and the two settled back into the armchair, Pepper still skeptical of this boy's intentions.

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	8. Chapter Eight: Ranting

**Author's Note: Okay, I can deal with two reviews, I guess. It's all good. Well, thank you to my two faithful reviewers. I'm writing this all for you. This is a super long chapter, so I hope you're happy. Yay. I'm off to Canada today, so you'll get a new chapter next week!**

**Enjoy!**

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Chapter Eight

Remus seemed to be taking a liking to Rachel, who was quite obviously infatuated with Ryo. Remus, however, did not seem to mind this. Being who he was, he did not make his crush very obvious, but instead dropped subtle hints. Sirius, of course, picked up on it right away and decided to tease Remus about it.

Evaline was wary. She had picked up on what was going on from Sirius's taunting, and she kept reminding the entire group not to get too involved with the people from this time.

Even with the teasing of Sirius, Remus blushing, and Evaline warning constantly, it took Rachel a while to pick up on the events. When she did, she was extremely flattered, but also torn. Thus, she began to divide her attention between doting upon Ryo and flirting distantly with Remus; Evaline tutted at the whole situation.

Ryo was none too happy with the fact that Rachel was being looked at by another person. However, he took it much better than Pepper had thought he would. Instead of being cross, he just began to ignore Rachel. Pepper remembered something that Alana Stoke had written in one of her letters over the summer: _Blaise isn't much of the violent jealous type, but when he's pissed you do not want to cross him. It's not pretty._

This statement was not proving to be true. Though, Pepper suspected, he had really cared for Alana, which is why he had reacted to her cheating on him as he did. He didn't really seem to like Rachel for much more than her snogging skills. But still, he was pissed.

Meanwhile, Ophelia had finally forgiven Jake for the incident with his sister in the bed. Jake took her back gratefully, fawning over her for days. All the time he wasn't spending with his girlfriend he spent watching his parents.

Forrest was still awkward. Pepper was trying to give him a chance to get to know her better, as he so obviously wanted to do; what they usually ended up doing was talking for a little while, sitting in an uncomfortable silence, and then snogging. Pepper spent her time better sitting with her brothers and watching their parents.

Julius did not really enjoy watching his father, but it was like watching a car crash: he just could not look away.

Tyler very perceptibly, wanted to go back to the present. His girlfriend was not happy most of the time, (she had divulged to Pepper that she wished her parents had gone to Hogwarts so that she could get to know them as her friends were now doing), and he didn't like seeing Evaline in that state.

Currently, Pepper and Forrest were seated outside in the February cold by the lake, wrapped in robes and sweaters, and doing preparatory N.E.W.T. work. The only reason they were out here, freezing their bums off, was because Prue and Sirius were not too far away, having a snowball fight.

"Jazelle, I don't see why we have to follow them _every minute of the day_. I know you want to get to know your parents better, but I'm freezing for Merlin's sake."

Pepper was getting used to glaring at Forrest. "You don't have to sit out here with me," she said defensively.

"I would want to if it wasn't so cold," Forrest complained. "Why do you have to follow them everywhere? Don't you think they're going to notice you're following them?"

"You know what," Pepper said, slightly in anger. She motioned to freeze him with her hands, but nothing happened. He looked at her, confused. "Dammit!" she cried, looking at her hands in anger. Then, glaring at Forrest (which she had been doing a lot lately), she got up and stormed back to the castle. "I'm done with him," she mumbled, slipping through the front doors and into the Entrance Hall which stung with the cold air Pepper let in from outside. Besides, she had figured out that she didn't like him much. Lately, she had been having feelings for someone else, though they were feelings that she didn't really want to admit.

The Gryffindor common room was nearly empty; most of the house was outside playing in the crisp, winter's day. Pepper clenched her fists in anger. She wanted to be outside as well, but she couldn't deal with Forrest anymore, _and_ her powers didn't work! Still, she had a lot of work to do for N.E.W.T.s, so she made her way to the girls' dormitories, lugging her overstuffed schoolbag. She was becoming confused at the whole being-in-the-past situation. As much as she loved being with her parents and getting to know them better, she was becoming afraid that by being here, she and her friends might change the future. Also, she didn't want to worry her aunts, her other classmates, and Ron's parents more than they probably already were.

As she made it to the top of the staircase, a voice called her name. It was Ryo. He looked slightly sheepish. "What is it?" Pepper called down to him.

"Can we…go for a walk?" he wondered.

Eyebrows knitted together, Pepper said, "Sure, I'll be down in a second." She hurried to her room, put down her bag, and went back down the staircase. He grabbed her elbow, (sending unwanted warmth through her), and led her quickly out the portrait hole. "What's up?" she asked, concerned.

"For once, _I'm_ going to rant," he said. They were moving quickly through the corridors. Once they were far away from the common room, he started to talk. "I'm pissed off." Before Pepper could ask why, he was continuing, "That stupid bint hangs all over me and then doesn't think that I'll notice when she turns her attention to someone else. She doesn't even con_sider_ that she's going to screw up our entire future by fraternizing with Remus Lupin. She doesn't consider _anything_ except herself." During his rant, Ryo opened a door that Pepper had never entered before.

The room looked like an old washroom. It had a high ceiling, toilet stalls, stone shower stalls, and marble sinks. Spider webs hung in the corners of the room and a fine layer of dust coated the floor. Ryo slammed the door behind Pepper. When Pepper looked at him, baffled at the room, he explained, "I found it yesterday when I was exploring. I tend to explore when I'm pissed off."

This was the most Pepper had ever seen him talk at once. "Why is this toilet deserted?"

Ryo shrugged. "You've interrupted my ranting, Black."

Pepper raised an eyebrow. He had been really good about calling everyone by their new names; he must have been really mad. "I apologize, go on."

"I don't understand why she doesn't realize what's going on around her!" he continued. "We're lucky she hasn't jumped Lupin's _bones_ yet. She's so damn _eager_." Ryo sat heavily in the middle of the dust-coated floor. Pepper joined him, plopping down across from him. His cheeks were flushed. He ranted for a few more minutes before running out of breath. Then, he just sat there, breathing heavily, looking at the floor.

Pepper reached out and put a hand on his knee. She'd never seem him like this. Usually she was the one in emotional distress. "I hate girls," he said, looking up at her.

"Well I hate boys," Pepper said in her defense.

"Did something else happen with lover-boy?" he asked. This time, he put a hand on her knee. Now they were both leaning towards each other; both concerned for the other. Pepper tried not to feel excited. She absolutely did _not_ want to have these feelings for Ryo. The two of them were supposed to be strictly platonic. Well, Pepper supposed, they would stay platonic because his feelings for her were unromantic, however out of control her feelings were getting.

"He just doesn't actually listen to what I say," Pepper said, trying to keep her mind focused on Forrest. "He sits there and looks at me and hears what I'm trying to tell him, but I think it just goes in one ear and out the other. We can't actually have an intelligent conversation together. The plonker just sits there looking at me and not actually taking anything in. He's probably just waiting to get me in a corner to snog the freaking _life_ out of me, because that's what he does. He just likes to snog." Now it was Pepper's turn to look down at the floor, breathing heavily like Ryo had been. "Boys suck."

Ryo let out a little chuckle and ran a hand through his hair. "Sounds like we're both in a fix."

Suddenly, Pepper had this overwhelming urge to kiss him. She definitely found him more attractive as Blaise, but she loved his personality in either body.

"Forrest just doesn't _get_ me, you know?" she said, cocking her head to the side.

Ryo raised an amused eyebrow. "So you want a bloke who actually _gets_ you, huh?"

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"We still haven't figured out what demons did this?" Phoebe asked, coming up into the attic. She had just gotten home from work and assumed her sisters were upstairs.

"No idea," Piper answered. They had been searching the Book of Shadows time and time again for the past week and a half, trying to find out which demons sent Pepper and her friends back in time and why. Dumbledore had been very helpful with his information on the nine kids that he seemed to remember from his past. His information had kept them from worrying too much, but Phoebe and her sisters were still working night and day to get their niece back.

Paige yawned loudly and obnoxiously. She was sprawled out in an old high-backed chair, exhausted from her recent late night and early morning dates with the Book.

"Well at least we know how they got sent back to Prue's time," Piper sighed, taking a seat herself.

"Yes, but we don't know why they were sent through the diary," said Phoebe. "I mean, the demons must have had a destination for them besides the diary. They couldn't have counted on Pepper having it there. Besides, what would sending Pepper to the past do to help the underworld?"

"Who knows? I'd just like to figure out what demon did this to Pepper and her friends," said Piper. "I don't want them to get hurt."

**HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP**

"My powers don't work." It was hours later and Pepper was pacing the decrepit bathroom. Ryo was still sitting on the floor. "I tried to freeze that tosser but it didn't work. So that scratches my idea of Mirroring back to the present."

"You never had that idea in the first place," said Ryo.

"I did just now," said Pepper smugly. Suddenly, she rounded on her heel and looked at him. A cat-like smile broke out on her face. "Let's get drunk," she said.

Again, Ryo raised an amused eyebrow at her. "Why?" he wondered.

"C'mon Blaise, I just feel like getting drunk. I feel drunk anyway, can't you tell?"

He chuckled. "Yes, I can tell. I don't think you need alcohol at this point, Black, you're already acting pissed."

"But if I'm drunk then I can get away with more," Pepper said innocently, pouting at him and batting her eyelashes. She was alarmed by her own audacity.

"What are you implying, Black?"

"Nothing," said Pepper in the same innocent tone, biting one side of her bottom lip.

"Remember your boyfriend?" he asked, standing up.

"What are _you_ implying, Mr. Zabini?" Pepper said playfully.

Before she realized what was happening, Blaise's lips were against hers, softly. Her eyelids closed. He pulled away before long, and her eyes fluttered open, her lips slightly parted. She stared at him in surprise, and his expression matched hers. She felt her cheeks turning red.

"What was that for?" she asked, quietly, a smile playing at her lips.

"You asked for it," he said, equally as quiet. He kissed her again. "You're such a damn tease." When their lips met again his hand flew to her hip, lessening the gap between them, and she put her hand on top of his. When they pulled apart they rested their foreheads together. They were both breathing heavily, though they hadn't even made out yet. Pepper had never been affected that way from a mere kiss.

"What are we doing?" she wondered. "We're supposed to stay friends. We don't even fancy each other."

"Don't we?" he said.

"I guess we do, then."

They kissed again.

"You realize this will mean we were passing you around," he said, a question in his voice.

Pepper thought about that for a moment. It seemed to be true: she was with Harry, and then Draco messed with her for a little while, even though they were cousins, and then she had just been with Trent. Now, it seemed, she was moving on to Blaise. But she was perfectly fine with that. "I don't care," she whispered.

They kissed for a third time. Her hand cupped the side of his face. "You get me," she said.

"Do I really?" he asked teasingly before capturing her lips in yet another kiss.

"I have a question," he said.

"What?"

"Why did you make yourself less hot?"

"Shut up," she said, and kissed him again.

"I hate girls," he said.

"Well I hate boys," she said.

**HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPH**

"Has anyone seen my sister or Ryo?" Jake asked the Marauders and Co. at the Gryffindor table. They shook their heads.

"They weren't outside with us," said Lily.

"Thanks," Jake said, walking back to his friends at the other end of the table. He sat back down in his seat next to his girlfriend.

"Any word?" she asked. Jake shook his head. "That's odd."

"I bet they're together," Forrest grumbled into his steak-and-kidney pie.

"Oh shut up," said Ophelia irritably. "You've broken up, so get over it already." She was getting very tired of hearing him complaining.

"We haven't broken up," Forrest said heatedly. "She never told me we were broken up. She just gets sensitive sometimes."

"Well even if you and Jazelle broke up, Ryo and I haven't," Rachel said, tearing her eyes away from Remus. Tyler snorted and Rachel glared angrily at him. "What?" she demanded.

"Nothing," he said, hiding a snicker.

"Where could they have gotten to? They've been gone since lunch."

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Pepper's back was pressed up against the dark, cold stone of one of the bathroom's musty shower stalls. Blaise's face was nuzzled in her neck and she was leaning her head back as far as possible to give him as much access to her skin as he needed. "Why are we doing this?" she repeated breathily.

Blaise stopped kissing her for a second to answer, "Would you like me to stop?"

Pepper was almost breathless. "No," she said. She was almost afraid of the effect Blaise had on her. "B-but Blaise, what about…ooh…wait, hold on." She was nearly shivering with pleasure. He pulled his lips from her collarbone to listen to what she was saying. "What are we doing?" She took a deep breath, trying to collect herself. Her head was spinning. "What about Forrest and Ophelia?"

"You mean the bint and the wanker?"

"Yes, them. We haven't…_Blaise, _I'm _talking_…s-_stop_ it for a minute, will you? Thank you. See, we haven't formally broken up with them yet."

"I don't care." Blaise delved back into her neck and Pepper's breath caught in her throat.

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"Have you found your friends yet?" Lily asked Jake, coming to sit next to him on the couch.

He looked at her and shook his head. "I'm not worried," he said, smiling at his mother. "My sister is always running off."

"You all seem to be very close," Lily commented. She stretched her legs out onto the coffee table.

"Some of us are closer than others," Jake said. "We've all known one another for such a long time. We basically grew up together."

"You're lucky to have so many siblings around," said Lily. "It must be fantastic to have so much fellowship."

"Except for the sibling rivalries," Jake chuckled. Lily laughed with him, raising a grin in him that plastered itself across his face. He loved spending time with his mother. She was beautiful, intelligent, and one of the nicest people Jake would ever meet. He definitely understood why James Potter was intent on having Lily Evans as a girlfriend.

"Yes, I suppose they can be quite bad," Lily laughed. "Especially when you're all fighting at once."

"And when a lot of us are dating each other," said Jake. "Then we have siblings fighting and couples fighting. Though, when we all get along, it's wonderful. We all have a great time together." Then he changed the subject, wanting to know more about his parents' relationship. "So, how long have you and James been dating?"

"Only since the beginning of this year," Lily replied. She grinned as she explained, "He's been after me since second year, but I wouldn't have anything to do with him." A piece of bright red hair fell into her eyes and she brushed it aside. "But this year he finally managed to win me over. I was spending a lot of time with him, since we're Head Boy and Head Girl and we share dorms, and somehow, I couldn't really tell you how, he got me to go with him to Hogsmeade. And the rest, I suppose, is history. We've fallen in love and we're already talking about spending the rest of our lives together." She was grinning like a madman now.

This saddened Jake somewhat. She was so prepared to marry James and commit her life to him, but she had no idea that their lives together would be cut short. "I'm so happy for you," he said.

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Their friends were probably worrying about them, but frankly, Pepper didn't give a damn. She was sure that there were going to be ridges from the stone etched into her back for a very long time, but she didn't care about that either. All she cared about was Blaise's hot kisses burning themselves onto her body.

"You're a virgin, right?" he asked huskily.

"Y-yes," she said, gasping for breath. She arched her back away from the shower wall. "You're not?"

"Alana," he said.

"Oh, yeah."

**HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPH**

While Jake was still talking to his mother, Professor McGonagall entered the common room. "Mr. Wyndham, Professor Dumbledore would like to see you, your siblings, and your friends in his office," she said. Jake stood. "I will wait here for you to gather your friends," she said.

Jake excused himself from Lily's company and went to get everyone. He wondered where his sister and Ryo were.

His girlfriend, Evaline, Julius, Rachel, Tyler and Forrest were all in the boys' dormitory. Forrest was brooding on his bed, while the others were having a conversation about how and when they were going to get back to the present. Rachel was complaining heavily in a whiny voice about missing her mates.

"Hey, love," Ophelia greeted as she saw her boyfriend in the doorway.

He smiled at her before saying, "Dumbledore wants to see all of us in his office. McGonagall is waiting for us down in the common room. We'll just have to go without Ryo and Jazelle."

The seven of them trotted back into the common room and followed Professor McGonagall out the portrait hole and to the office of Professor Dumbledore. McGonagall left them at the spiral staircase after she had given the gargoyle the password. Dumbledore, as usual, greeted them warmly, ushering them into chairs he already had set out for them.

"I see you are missing two of your companions," he said, curious.

"We can't seem to find them, sir," Evaline explained. "They probably went for a walk, or something."

"Perhaps they've discovered one of the castles hidden rooms," said Dumbledore, a twinkle in his eye. "Anyhow, let us get to the reason I asked you all here this evening. I have found a way to send you back to your time."

All of the faces in the room lit up. "We can go home?" Rachel asked excitedly.

"Tomorrow morning," Dumbledore nodded, smiling.


	9. Chapter Nine: Present Again

**Reviews are definitely lacking.**

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Chapter Nine

Pepper had expected her first time to be covered in rose petals and mood lighting. She had expected to be laid out on a king-sized mattress with feather pillows. When she thought she had lost her virginity courtesy of Draco Malfoy, at least she had been laid on a king-sized mattress with feather pillows. But that wasn't her first time.

She _hadn't_ expected her first time to be standing against a stone wall in a dark, unused bathroom.

She had expected that, after sex, she and her boyfriend would grow closer. It would strengthen their relationship and they wouldn't want to spend a moment apart. She expected that she would look and feel like herself for her first time. She expected to want to tell all of her friends the exciting news.

The trouble was, she and Blaise Zabini were not dating, and they were now expertly avoiding one another. And he had not even seen the real her; nor her the real him. They were in fake bodies. She didn't want to tell anyone what happened, though she felt like she was wearing a gigantic sign, reading, _Blaise Zabini and I shagged in a shower stall last night! _This was not, in any way, shape, or form, part of Pepper's plan.

"We're leaving," Jazelle said to Sirius and Prue. Prue looked at the girl, her brow creased, looking for an explanation. "We've…er…we've got to go back to our school. Our parents are moving back and we've got to go with them."

"Oh…well, good luck back at your old school. It was very nice to meet you." Pepper gave each of her parents a tight hug farewell, savoring the feel of them.

The group said good-bye to the friends they had made over the past two weeks; Rachel taking particular time to say farewell to Remus Lupin.

Torn between happiness and sadness, Pepper and her friends made their way to Dumbledore's office right after breakfast. She and Ryo were steering clear of each other, but they were also avoiding Forrest and Rachel.

Once inside the Headmaster's office, he instructed them to all stand in a circle around a hexagonal bowl full of water that was standing on a stool in the middle of the room.

"Thank you for everything you've done for us, Professor," Evaline said as he had them all put their hand on the sides of the bowl.

"Certainly, Miss Hamilton," said Dumbledore. "Now, I am going to add some herbs to the water and say an incantation…**_Ostendo_**_discedo_****_pridem!_

Everything was spinning at warp speed. Pepper couldn't make out a thing; it was just a blur of color. She wasn't sure how long this went on because she couldn't judge any sort of time. All she was aware of was the container she was holding out in front of her.

She landed hard, her arm twisted under her, a huge weight landing on her chest. "Oomph," she grunted. Everything was still spinning, though she was now still. Once her vision straightened itself out, she found that she was looking at a very familiar ceiling. In fact, it resembled the ceiling of the Great Hall.

She heard a metallic thud and an "Ow!" A liquid splashed her face. "Can we get up now?" came a voice. It sounded like Draco's voice. Draco's. His real, original voice.

"I agree with that!" Pepper said as loud as she could, considering she had eight people piled on top of her.

"Who the hell's on top?" That was Draco's voice again. It seemed that he was lying right on top of Pepper, though all she could see of him was his side, hip, and leg.

"Could someone please get the fuck off?" Pepper asked, practically gasping for air at this point.

"Blaise is on top." That voice sounded much like Candie Marie Lowell's. Pepper glowered. That sounded too kinky for her to be saying that. Blaise was hers…maybe.

"Hey, Zabini, get the hell up, we're squishing Halliwell down here," Draco ordered

"And my face is all wet," Pepper complained. Finally, a little bit of the great crushing weight left.

"C'mon people, let's keep it moving!" Draco commanded. "What were the chances that we all landed in a pile on top of each other?" Little by little the weight decreased, until Draco heaved himself off of Pepper. She just lay there, staring at the ceiling, until she heard the words, "Oh hell."

She sat up to find that the entire Great Hall was full of students and teachers, looking at the party of nine with open mouths. She stood quickly and wiped her wet face with the sleeve of her robe. "Well, this is certainly a predicament," she said.

Then, Dumbledore, the _present_ Dumbledore, was speaking. "Students, please head off to your dormitories. I must discuss a few things with the students who just appeared in the middle of the Hall."

Slowly, students pushed back their benches, which scraped the floor, and made their way to their common rooms. Except for Ginny. Ginny Weasley ran towards her brother and caught him in a tight hug. "You're back!" she cried, nearly lifting him off of the floor.

Blaise caught Pepper's eye. She was glad to see that he was back to his normal, exceptionally good-looking self, but since last night she hated meeting his eye. She felt so vulnerable and naked under his gaze. As much as she was ashamed to admit it, he made her blush. She looked away from him and to Professor Dumbledore of the wonderful, fabulous present, who was now walking towards them.

"I'm glad to see you are all back safely," he welcomed. "If you'll all follow me to my office, please, we can settle a few things. Miss Halliwell, Professor McGonagall is Apparating to your aunts' house as we speak. I'm sure that they will want to know you are back safely."

For the second time that day, they headed towards Dumbledore's office. Trent walked alongside Pepper and tried to casually sling his arm across her shoulders, but she twirled out of his grasp. "Pepper, what's the matter?" he asked.

She scoffed at him. "How many times do I have to tell you that we're over?" she said.

"Until I believe that you mean that," he replied.

She let out an angry breath through her teeth, glancing over her shoulder at Blaise and Mystic. She seemed to be giving the same thing to him that Trent was giving to Pepper. Pepper couldn't help but grin. At least Blaise seemed to be on the same page as Pepper was with everything.

Piper, Paige and Phoebe were already waiting in the headmaster's quarters. "Pepper!" they exclaimed in chorus. Piper crushed her with a hug while Phoebe screeched "Hermione!" and hugged Pepper's surrogate sister. And, suddenly, Pepper and Hermione both launched into an explanation of everything that had happened to the group. Before long, all of the adults had the information they needed and The Nine were sitting.

"I see," said Dumbledore when they were finished explaining.

"We still haven't figured out how the demons sent you back to Prue's time," said Phoebe. "I mean, we figured out that they sent you through the diary but—"

"The _diary_!" said Pepper loudly. "I'd totally forgotten about that! To tell you the truth, I hadn't really thought about how or why we were sent there."

"What diary?" Harry asked.

Pepper turned to him to explain. "My mother's diary. I had it with me when I came up to the common room because…" Pepper suddenly remembered why she had gone up to the common room in the first place: to tell Harry about Summoning. Now, they didn't really need to do that for a while but… "Oh, sorry. I zoned out for a second. Anyway, I had my mother's diary and it must have fallen out of my robes and, somehow, the demons sent us through the diary, probably to the page it fell open to.

"That's what we figured," said Paige. "We just haven't figured out which demons did this or _why_ they did it. They didn't mean to send you back to Prue's time, I'm sure, but we know they meant to send you somewhere. Pepper, we're going to need your help back at the Manor to identify who did this to you. We don't want to take the Book of Shadows out of the house."

"Why don't you all go to the Manor and assist?" Dumbledore suggested to the gathered students.

"That sounds great," said Piper. "We can use all the help we can get. I'll get Leo to help take everyone." She called for Leo and he appeared a minute later. Mystic, Trent and Ryo looked rather confused at his entrance.

"Take as much time as you need," said Dumbledore. "I will see you all when we get back. Hopefully, you will figure something out."

"All right, everyone grab onto either Paige or Leo," Piper instructed. "Pepper, we'll meet you back there."

Pepper, getting her gist, closed her eyes tightly and envisioned the welcoming attic of the Manor. Her stomach lurched, and she found herself standing in the attic. Her aunts, uncle, and friends were already there. Most of them looked confused. She smiled, looking around. "Home!" she said, smiling widely. "Can Hermione and I just re-acclimate ourselves with the house while you guys get started?" she asked her aunts. They nodded and Pepper grabbed Hermione's wrist and they hurried downstairs.

"It's so good to be back in the present," said Hermione, taking the stairs two at a time. "Though, I have to admit, I'm going to miss my Evaline appearance. It was nice to look so good."

"And I'm going to miss my Jazelle appearance. It was nice to have smaller boobs."

They flew into their room and landed on their beds. Hermione turned over on her stomach and rested her chin in her hands, looking at Pepper. Pepper did the same at the head of her bed; it looked like Hermione needed to say something important. "Pepper, I need to tell you something."

"What is it, Hermione?"

"I…I let Ron go farther, while we were there."

Pepper's eyes widened in surprise at this statement, and she asked, "How far, Hermione?"

"Um…well…" her cheeks turned pink.

"Did you have sex, Hermione?" Pepper asked her stomach clenching.

"_No_," said Hermione hurriedly. "Of course not." The knot in Pepper's stomach grew. Would Hermione disapprove of her having sex with Blaise…or Ryo, as the case was.

"Then what did you do?"

Hermione's face was gradually turning bright red. "I…er…um…well…Ron…"

"Hermione, I did not understand any of that. You're going to have to form a complete sentence," said Pepper, slightly amused.

"I…well…I gave him…oh Merlin," Hermione dropped her elbows and her face became buried in the pillow.

"Hand?" Pepper wondered. Hermione grunted in the affirmative. Pepper was shocked. "Hermione!" she exclaimed, almost laughing. After a pause she asked, tentatively, "Well, was it…er…nice?"

Hermione looked up at her friend. "Yes," she said embarrassedly, biting her lip.

Pepper suddenly felt guilty because she hadn't told Hermione of having sex with Blaise. But now wasn't the time. "How did it…I mean…how did it _come about_?" Pepper asked.

"It was kind of strange, you know, because I'd never actually seen his…"

"Penis," Pepper supplied.

Hermione blushed again. "…penis. I'd never seen it before so…we were kissing in his dormitory, the door was locked, of course, and…I was sort of rubbing his thigh and…then it just _happened_." She seemed mortified. "But it's never happened when I was just Hermione."

"You had probably never rubbed his thigh like that before, Hermione," Pepper said, resisting the urge to giggle. "It had nothing to do with the fact that you were a sex kitten. Ron thinks you're a sex kitten all of the time, and that's all that matters. Now c'mon, we'd better get back up to the attic." When they both stood Pepper caught Hermione in a tight hug. "My little baby is growing up," she said, pretending to be choked up.

"Oh stop it," Hermione laughed. "I want to go visit the rest of the house before we go back up." Their first stop was to the nursery to visit Wyatt, who was being looked after by a dwarfish woman.

Pepper swept her cousin into her arms. "Hey Wyatt, how are you? I missed you little guy!" She kissed his forehead and cooed at him for a while before passing him onto Hermione.

After laying him down again in the crib, they headed downstairs. Pepper dashed around the downstairs before soaring out the front door. She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the person on the front lawn across the street. Hermione, who had been running around the house as well, crashed into her from behind, almost sending Pepper flying down the front stairs. Hermione grabbed Pepper's hips from behind, steadying them both. "Hermione, look!" Pepper hissed, motioning across the street with his head.

He saw her too. "Pepper!" Raphael exclaimed, his sultry voice carrying across the street. Pepper wanted to retreat back into the house and slam the door in his face, but she resisted. She had to prove to him that she had moved on. Hermione squeezed her hips in reassurance before she stepped down off of the front porch.

"Hey Raphael!" she greeted warmly, walking across the street. He was mowing the lawn, and turned of the mower to greet his ex-girlfriend. She made a move to give him a hug, and he accepted the offer. Pepper tried to block out his familiar scent and the memory of the sensations his body caused hers. "You look great," she said as they pulled out of the hug.

"You do too," he said, giving her body a once over. Normally, she would have blushed, but now someone else had seen more of her than Raphael had. "How've you been?"

"Pretty good," he replied. "School's going well, and I've been dating someone for a few months now."

The knot Pepper expected to form at that sentiment wasn't there. She was surprised and didn't have to fake her smile. Maybe she really had moved on. "That's great," she said.

"What about you?" he asked.

"I'm fantastic," Pepper answered, and she found that this really wasn't a lie. "Everything's going fabulously."

"Good," he said.

"Well, it was good to see you again, though I suspect that will be happening a lot this summer."

"You're graduating this year, right?"

"Yeah. It's only a few short months away!" Pepper hadn't thought about the fact that she was actually graduating from Hogwarts in a mere three months. "Well, I've got to get going, I'll see you around."

"Bye, Pepper."

In the middle of the street, she turned to look back at him, and she waved. Hermione was still waiting for her on the front porch. When they were back inside the Manor Hermione said, "Was it okay?"

"Yes," said Pepper, and she nodded in satisfaction. "I think it's safe to say that I am completely over that jackass."

"PEPPER! HERMIONE! WHERE ARE YOU?" They were yelling for the girls from the attic, and Pepper and Hermione hurried up there.

All of the students were gathered around the Book of Shadows, which Piper was flipping through. Pepper and Hermione joined the circle. Phoebe shot Pepper a look as if asking if she was all right. Pepper guessed that she had seen Pepper with Raphael from the attic window. Pepper smiled at her to Phoebe to show that everything was okay.

"Take a look at these," Piper said, turning the Book towards Hermione and Pepper. She flipped back and forth between a few pages, showing different demons. "Everyone's saying that these are all the demons there were."

Pepper recognized them all. When the demons had attacked, she had tried to memorize their faces so that she would be able to identify them. She suspected that Hermione had done the same thing, since she was now used to the way the Halliwells worked.

Hermione shook her head. "No, there was one more," she said. "Can I see the Book?"

Piper handed it over and Hermione started flipping through it. "There," she exclaimed in triumph. Pepper recognized that demon as well. Hermione never missed anything.

"Fabulous," said Paige. "Let's get to work."

The students were sent downstairs to wait. Pepper had protested, but her aunts ensured her that if they needed Pepper they would call for her. They wanted to lessen the confusion. Besides, Pepper had to play hostess.

"This is weird," Mystic said, setting herself down on the couch next to Blaise. She tried to cuddle up to him, but he scooted away. Pepper fought the urge to grin. Mystic continued as if she hadn't just been rejected. "Do your aunts do this all the time?"

"Yes," Pepper replied. "It does get rather strange sometimes, even for me."

"Oh this is nothing, Mystic," said Candie cockily. Harry had his arm slung over her shoulders, as usual.

"Really," said Pepper. "And what is the last demon you fought, Miss Lowell?" She pursed her lips and cocked her eyebrow at the girl. She felt she had the upper hand in their battle as of now, seeing as she had gotten Candie to explode at her that day in the common room when she awoke with Harry.

"For your information, _Halliwell_, it was a warlock, not a demon." She glared icily at Pepper. The air in the room was growing thick. "Not that I have to prove myself to you."

"You're the one who brought it up, _hon_; I was just inquiring about your obviously fantastic evil-fighting skills."

Candie made a move to get up from her seat on the loveseat, but Harry held her back. "C'mon guys, calm down," he said. The rest of the room was silent, watching. Glaring lividly at Candie, Pepper got up from the floor and stalked upstairs, leaving the crackling tension behind her.

Her aunts were busily mixing potions in the attic. Phoebe looked up when Pepper came into the room, now considerably calmer than she had been downstairs.

"How're things going?" Pepper asked.

"We have to make a lot of vanquishing potions," Piper said. She was still studying the book; writing things down on a piece of paper. "I don't understand why all these demons attacked you. They don't have anything obvious in common. They're all lower-level, though, so they might be working under the same demon."

"Pepper," said Phoebe softly, "how exactly were things with Raphael? I saw you two hugging…"

"I'm over him," said Pepper happily. "He's a right arse, and I can truthfully say that I have no feelings for him whatsoever."

"That's great," Phoebe smiled. "Though, that means that you've moved onto someone else, right?" She raised both eyebrows suggestively. "Ginny told us that you were interested in that one boy that was here: Trent?"

"Oh, it's all over with him," said Pepper airily. "I didn't ever have any real feelings for him. Blaise, however…"

"Was he the very good-looking one with the Snow White wannabe hanging all over him?" Paige asked.

Pepper's stomach hardened when she heard that Mystic was all over Blaise when Pepper had been outside. "Yes," she replied. "We've been getting…er…_close_ lately."

Phoebe looked at her in shock. "Pepper, you didn't."

"Didn't what?" said Pepper, but she had an inkling that Phoebe knew exactly what she had been insinuating.

"You _did_. You had sex with him."

"What?" Piper cried, looking up from the Book of Shadows, a very shocked expression covering her face.

Pepper's cheeks heated to a deep fuchsia. All three of her aunts abandoned what they were doing and ushered her over to the old sofa, where they sat her down and gathered around her.

"What happened, Pepper?"

"Well…what if I told you I didn't sleep with him?" Pepper said nervously.

"I'd call you a liar," said Phoebe. "C'mon Pepper, you can trust us." She gave Pepper's knee a reassuring squeeze.

And so, Pepper told her aunts what happened between her and Blaise. It seemed as if it had happened a week ago, not just yesterday. A lot had happened since then.

All three Halliwells were slightly stunned. "You did it in a _bathroom_," said Piper unbelievingly. "With someone you weren't even dating?"

"Are you mad?" Pepper asked worriedly, her face scrunched up in anxiety.

"I'm not mad, sweetie, it's just…as long as you're happy, I'm happy," Piper said finally.

"So, are you sure he's not with this Mystic girl anymore?" Paige asked. She sounded slightly worried.

"I don't think he is," Pepper said. "But I'm not positive. I haven't said a word to him since it happened. He told me yesterday that he fancied me, and then I guess we sort of got carried away…" She was frustrated now. "Can we please just vanquish these damn demons?"


	10. Chapter Ten: Tired

**A/N: I know, I know, it's been a long time and this chapter is really short, but junior year is really crazy and I've been working my freaking arse off. Thus, I'll try t update in shorter chapters more often. I'm sorry my wonderful and _fantablurific_ reviewers. You guys are so awesome. I love you. I love you so much I made up that fanthingy word for you.**

**So…REVIEW! Yay! They're awesome.**

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Chapter Ten

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"I think you all need to go back to Hogwarts," Piper announced to the room of Hogwarts students. "Thank you for helping us to find the demons, but it will be safer if you're at Hogwarts while we vanquish them."

"I can help," said Candie. "I'm a natural witch. I've dappled in demons."

Pepper resisted the overwhelming urge to punch her. Luckily, her aunts squashed Candie's idea right away. "We don't want to be responsible for you getting hurt," said Piper. "It would be in everyone's best interests if you all went back to Hogwarts. We'll keep you updated on what we accomplish."

Pepper looked smugly down at Candie. "You too, Pepper," said Piper, seeing her niece's face. Pepper looked at her aunts in disbelief. "We will keep you updated on our demon progress, Pep, don't you worry. Leo will take you all back to school. Good luck with Blaise," she added quietly.

And before Pepper knew what was happening, she and her friends were back at Hogwarts in the common room of Hermione and Draco. "I'm ex_hausted_," Mystic said dramatically, yawning widely. "Today has been way too busy and my bed is calling." She kissed Blaise on the cheek quickly and then headed out of the room.

The attitudes of the people left suggested that nothing out of the ordinary had happened to them in the past few weeks. Pepper looked around at the other people with her. Their faces were mostly unreadable. Pepper was too worried about her aunts and the demons right now to talk to anyone, so she turned towards Hermione's dormitory and let herself in. She couldn't believe that her aunts hadn't let her come vanquish demons with them. She could be a great help to them, she knew, and she couldn't just sit here and not do anything.

She decided, of course, in Pepper-like fashion, to go back and assist her aunts, whether they liked it or not. Just as she had closed her eyes in preparation to Mirror, Hermione burst in the door. Pepper's eyes flashed open.

"Pepper Halliwell, don't you dare move from that spot!" Hermione cried. Pepper's mouth was agape with almost-formed words, but Hermione continued. "I know you were about to go back to help but you need to stay here! We need to go and tell Professor Dumbledore that we're back and see if he's figured anything out."

Hermione knew her too well, which was strange, seeing as they'd only known one another for a year and a half. Hermione took Pepper's arm. "C'mon, Pepper, let's go."

Pepper avoided Blaise's eyes and tried not to meet Trent's as they passed through the common room. "We're going to see Professor Dumbledore," Hermione told them as they exited the common room. Harry and Ron hurried out behind them, meeting the girls in the corridor.

They walked in silence for a few moments, still mostly in a daze about what had happened to them. Then, Harry cleared his throat and said, "Pepper, you've really got to do something about that bloke."

Pepper chuckled. Harry could always make her feel better about a situation.

"No, I'm serious," said Harry. "He's like a puppy, following you around like he does."

"Harry, shouldn't we be more worried about the demons who may be trying to kill us?" said Hermione briskly.

"Whatever you say, Hermione," Harry said.

"Honestly, what should be feeling right now?" Pepper wondered. "Because I think my emotions are a little mixed up at the moment."

"I'd have to agree with that," said Ron.

"I just hope that Professor Dumbledore and the sisters figure out what is going on," Hermione added.

As it happened, Professor Dumbledore had no idea what was going on yet. He did, however, employ Nymphadora Tonks and two other Aurors who were going to search the Head common room, looking for clues, and who were also going to watch after the students who were attacked.

"Hermione, don't you think I should just go and see how my aunts are faring?" Pepper asked as they exited Dumbledore's office, completely disappointed.

"No, you shouldn't, Pepper, and you very well know that," Hermione said sternly.

"Well I want to do something about this instead of sitting on my arse."

"You're the one that said we should be thinking about it, Hermione," Harry pointed out.

"Yes, well," said Hermione, now sounding unsure of herself. "Let's go back up to my common room and wait for your aunts, Pepper."

Blaise was in the Heads common room. "Why don't we just go to Gryffindor Tower?" Pepper asked, trying as hard as she possibly could to evade Blaise. He made her much too uncomfortable, and she didn't want to get obviously squirmy in front of anyone.

"You three can go there; I want to talk to Draco about getting caught up with the Head duties that we missed," said Hermione. "We are way behind our schedule."

Of course, Pepper couldn't go back to Gryffindor Tower alone. Then they would definitely suspect something. She had a feeling that she was getting a little paranoid. She needed to tell someone about what had happened…but she couldn't…now that she thought about it, the whole event was embarrassing to say aloud to anyone besides her aunts. They had to love her no matter what. Her friends on the other hand…

"Pepper, are you coming?"

She had been standing in the middle of the hallway while everyone else had still been walking. She shook her head to rid herself of the thoughts of sex with Blaise and followed her friends.

Harry let Ron and Hermione walk ahead. The pair was holding hands and smiling a lot, so they didn't notice when Harry pulled Pepper back. "Is something wrong, Pepper?" he asked her quietly. "You seem a little…off."

Pepper lied quickly, "It's just this whole thing with these demons. I'm trying to figure out what really happened." She hoped Harry would believe her.

And he seemed to believe her. If he didn't, he didn't press her about it. "Just remember, Pepper, I'm here to listen, not to judge."

After he said that in his sensitive-Harry way, Pepper nearly spilled her guts to him, but she refrained.

"I'll be fine, Harry," she said, trying to convince them both that this was true. "But thanks, you have no idea how much that means to me."

Harry smiled lopsidedly at her. "What are friends for? Now let's go get Trent off your back; he's really irking me."

But when they got back to the common room, Trent was gone and Draco and Blaise were sitting on couches opposite one another. They stopped talking when the four friends entered the room. Draco looked at her, scrutinizing, his eyebrows raised in disbelief, and Pepper got the feeling in the pit of her stomach that Blaise had just told him what had transpired between the pair of them. Pepper did not appreciate this, and she felt bad because she hadn't even told Hermione yet; though, she suspected Draco would be more accepting than Hermione would be.

She quickly looked away from Draco. "I don't know if I really feel safe in here, guys. I mean, this _is _where we were abducted from before."

"Frankly, Pepper, I don't think it matters where we are," said Hermione. She took a seat next to Draco on the couch. "I think the demons are after you, Pepper, so if they want to find us, they will."

This thought had crossed Pepper's mind, but it hadn't actually registered to her that the demons were hunting her down. She was feeling a little lightheaded. "I-I think I'm going to go lay down," she said, and turned around and walked out the portrait hole.

Why couldn't this all have ended last year? Why was someone still sending demons after her?

She needed food. And sleep. She hadn't had much of either lately and those elements combined with the reality Hermione had just hit her with was making her very woozy. All of a sudden, Harry was beside her, his hand on the small of her back. "Careful, Pep, you nearly collapsed," he said. "We've got to get you into bed. I'm feeling about the same way you are, and I'm off to bed too. Demons should just leave us the feck alone."

Pepper yawned, and the next thing she knew she was crawling into bed, fully clothed; her head hit the pillow and she temporarily forgot about the demons and the sex and the stress.


	11. Chapter Eleven: Intervention

**I know I know, you're all going to kill me. I have SO MUCH HOMEWORK but I decided to put it off to do a little writing. Though, I would write more if I got more reviews, you know……..Well, enjoy guys!**

Chapter Eleven

When she woke up, she was starving. Her stomach rumbled loudly and she rolled out of bed, moaning in protest. The clock told her it was past noon. "Shit," Pepper mumbled her eyes suddenly popping open. As she raced to the lavatory, a note hanging on the wall mirror with a piece of Spellotape caught her eye and she stopped to read it.

_Pepper-_

_Professor Dumbledore gave us the day off. He had our professors send us a list of assignments. They're in my common room; that's where we all are, if you would like to come join us._

_-Hermione_

"I am going to have so much work to catch up on," she sighed, flinging the note into the rubbish bin as she entered the lavatory. The mirror above the sink told her that her face looked absolutely awful. "Fabulous."

Once she looked presentable, Pepper went to the Heads' common room in hopes that they had smuggled some food from the kitchen. Luckily they had. Unluckily, Harry and Ron were _not_ in the common room. Hermione was sitting on one of the couches, across from a couch laden with Blaise and Draco. This looked like an intervention.

Uh oh.

Blaise looked positively surly. Damn.

"Hey Pepper," Hermione said, smiling at her. "Are you hungry? Come sit."

Tentatively, Pepper approached the couch, not looking at Blaise. She felt so naked when she was around him, and she pulled her robes closed, trying to block out the nakedness. The place Hermione had designated for her to sit was directly across from Blaise. This had to be an intervention.

"Pepper, Draco and I were just wondering what happened between you and Blaise," Hermione said in a voice that resembled that of a mother talking to a small child.

"What makes you think something happened between us?" Pepper asked innocently, keeping her eyes trained towards Hermione, and not the other sofa.

"Maybe the fact that you've been completely avoiding one another for days now," said Hermione, clearly impatient. Pepper got the feeling that Hermione had already grilled Blaise.

Pepper turned to Draco and said, miffed, "I thought that Blaise already filled you in on all of it."

"He just told me you two snogged," Draco shrugged.

"_What_?" Hermione exclaimed. Draco looked amused. "Draco, why didn't you tell me this? _Pepper_! Why didn't YOU tell me this?"

"It's not my business to tell, Hermione," said Draco coolly. "You're the one that has their knickers in a twist over this; though, I must admit, I'm a little curious as to why there's been some major tension for the past few days."

"Well, it could just have been the snogging," Hermione said.

"You know the two of us are sitting here," said Pepper sarcastically.

"It's more than snogging," Draco continued. "Two people don't avoid one another for a mere snogging session. It could have been an argument."

"We shagged," Blaise interjected casually, his expression unchanging.

The color in Pepper's face drained at this statement, but Hermione just began to laugh. "Like that would ever happen!" she giggled.

Pepper finally met Blaise's eyes. She fought the blush that was rising to her blanched cheeks. "Can I talk to you?" she asked boldly, her voice cracking from nervousness. Hermione stopped laughing when the question left Pepper's lips, and the truth of the words finally dawned on her. But before an angry exclamation could be made, Pepper and Blaise were outside of the common room.

Pepper was standing on the other side of the corridor from Blaise, against the wall. She wanted to be as far away from him as possible. She averted her eyes from him again. There was an awkward silence for a moment before Blaise said, in a very un-Blaise-like way, "I'm sorry, Black."

Pepper was extremely taken aback by this. "What do you mean, _I'm sorry_?"

He looked up at her and Pepper felt the heat rising to her cheeks again. She refused to look away from him. "I'm trying to apologize here, Black, it's not something I do very often."

"What are you apologizing for, Blaise? The other day?"

"What else would I apologize for?" His arms were crossed and he was leaning against the stone corridor wall, looking very attractive. Pepper was surprised how much her body and emotions reacted to him.

"Blaise, there is no reason for you to apologize," said Pepper quietly.

It was Blaise's turn to look shocked. "Black, we _had sex_."

"I'm fully aware of that fact. But it was consensual, Blaise, in case you weren't there." Her voice then dropped to a whisper. "Blaise, we _both_ wanted it." She looked at him, sucking her bottom lip into her mouth until it nearly disappeared. She was more nervous right now than she would ever like to admit.

"But it wasn't even our real selves, Black," he pointed out.

"That's the only part of it I regret, Blaise." The sexual tension building in the corridor was becoming overwhelming. "I really fancy you." He crossed the hall, invading her desired personal space, and put his hands on her hips. The hairs on Pepper's neck were standing on edge. "This is where you're supposed to respond."

"I really fancy you too, Black."

That was what she wanted to hear, and in response to that, she leaned forward and kissed him, smiling. She had no idea how much she had been looking forward to this moment since the night they had sex up against a shower stall.

Blaise seemed to be smiling into the kiss as well. Pepper pulled away and looked at him. "Are you actually smiling?" she wondered. Blaise never smiled.

"People are allowed to smile every once in a while, Black," he said, trying to make his face straight again, but not succeeding. "I'm allowed to be happy."

Pepper's smile widened and he entangled her fingers in Blaise's wavy dark hair and she pulled his face down to hers again. She hadn't been this happy in a while.

"Well, you two look cozy." Draco was suddenly outside in the corridor with them, disrupting their moment of sweet realization. "Pepper could you kindly explain to Hermione what exactly happened between you two? She's going absolutely nutters."

Pepper was happy to give an explanation to Hermione now that she knew she and Blaise were on the same page. Hermione was comforted by the fact that Pepper had finally told her and Pepper and Blaise weren't ignoring one another anymore, but she brought Pepper and the plate of food up to her room. There, she did a through motherly reprimanding of Pepper for having sex with Blaise.

Pepper sat on Hermione's bed and took the lecture. Right now, she was floating from happiness and it didn't matter how mad Hermione was at her. She thought that when she told Hermione what had happened she would get upset by the yelling and the anxiety of Hermione. Instead, she was barely paying attention to her friend.

"Pepper, why did you have sex with him?" Hermione asked for the tenth time.

"Hermione, I've already told you, it just happened," Pepper replied again. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you about it before, but I was afraid you would react like…well, like this. Sure, it wasn't the ideal way to lose my virginity…but after talking to Blaise, I definitely don't regret it. I think…I think I was ready for it, in a way. I feel like I should feel worse about this; for some reason, I don't. For some reason I'm perfectly okay with it."

Hermione collapsed onto the bed next to Pepper. "I want to have sex with Ron," she blurted out. Pepper looked at her in shock. "I've been thinking about it for a while now, and I think I'm ready." Hermione's face was redder than Pepper had ever seen it. "I love Ron."

Pepper wasn't sure what to say to this. Hermione had clearly switched from her angry persona to her interested one. "What was it like, Pepper?"

Pepper was smiling now, at the memory. How could she have ever worried that she had done something wrong? "It was kind of weird," she admitted. "I mean, it wasn't horizontal sex. I was up against a wall. And it wasn't our real bodies or faces. But other than that, it was amazing."

"What's going to happen with you and Blaise now?" Hermione wondered.

"Well, we established that we both really fancy one another," Pepper said. "But other than that…Blaise isn't really the type of person to have more than one girl at a time, so I guess we're a couple?"

"PEPPER!" Draco's voice drifted up the staircase. Pepper and Hermione hurried out of Hermione's bedroom and back to the common room, where Paige, Piper and Phoebe were standing. Now Pepper found her eyes involuntarily drifting to Blaise; quite the opposite of what they had been doing before. But now was not the time. She looked back at her aunts, who seemed to be rather dazed.

"What did you find out?" Pepper wondered, anxious.

"Not enough," said Paige, shaking her head and collapsing into and armchair. She glanced around the room. "Where're Ron and Harry?"

"Still sleeping," Hermione replied. "Why, should they be here to hear this?"

Piper looked rather distracted. "They're after you and Wyatt," she said.

This was rather shocking news. "Who exactly is _they_?"

"We're not really sure," Paige said. "We haven't gotten much information out of the lower-level demons."

"I don't even know how many we killed," Phoebe said. "I lost count."

"Why are they going after Wyatt?" Pepper asked, her face suddenly etched with worry.

"You two are destined to shift the balance of good and evil to the good side, apparently."

"You're kidding," Pepper gasped.

"According to evil, this means you both have to die," Phoebe said. "And according to _us_, this means that you both have to be on constant surveillance."

Piper elaborated: "We're keeping Wyatt at Magic School for the time being, under all of the teachers, and we're adding even more additions to our security around the school. We'll put crystals in your dorm, though we would appreciate it if Hermione could accommodate you in her dormitory for the time being."

"Of course," Hermione agreed quickly. "Anything I can do to help. I don't want anything to happen to Pepper or Wyatt."

Pepper was concerned at this point; not so much for herself but for her baby cousin. Who would go after a baby? Out of the corner of her eye, she locked gazes with Blaise, who was now standing. He, too, looked worried. Pepper fought the urge to let out a guilty grin: he was concerned for her?

"Is there anything we can do about this?" Pepper wondered, looking back at her aunts. "Who would want to hurt a baby? He's harmless. Except for that force field thing he can do when he's in danger."

"He conjured a dragon the other day, Pepper," Piper said blatantly. "Wyatt is in no way harmless; and the demons want to make sure they eliminate the threat of his growing powers."

"But what about Pepper's powers?" asked Hermione. "They're pretty developed, don't you think?"

"We're assuming that the demons were trying to transport you all, specifically Pepper, to a different plane so that she had no powers," Paige explained. "Luckily, it didn't work. But there's no guarantee that they won't try again, which is why we're enforcing the entire castle with crystal traps. You all need to be extra careful around here."

Pepper wanted a hug right now. In fact, she _needed_ a hug right now; this was a lot to deal with at once.

"Perhaps we should get Harry and Ron."


	12. Chapter Twelve: Sleeping Around

**Thanks to your six wonderful reviews I've updated sooner and yes, your eyes don't deceive you, IT IS A LONG CHAPTER!!! I love all reviews, they are amazing, and I think you all for them very very much. You guys are fabulous. Keep reviewing and I'll keep cranking out the wonderful chapters! I think you'll find a lovely surprise in this one….Enjoy!**

Chapter Twelve

"Do you have any idea how good-looking you are?" Pepper couldn't help but staring at Blaise across the library table. They all had an immense amount of work, and Pepper and Blaise were trying to wheedle down the load; the pair had been working in the library for four hours for the past week. Today, Pepper was having a difficult time concentrating.

"Yes, I do happen to know, thank you," Blaise answered arrogantly. "You should get back to work."

"I don't wanna work!" Pepper exclaimed quietly.

"Stop whining."

Despite this order, Pepper found a smile creeping onto her face. Blaise always knew what to say to her to keep her focused. Lately, Pepper's mind had been wandering to her impending demon doom, but Blaise wouldn't let her linger on it too long.

"If you kiss me I'll stop," Pepper threatened.

Blaise's eyes amusedly went from his book to Pepper's face. She was smiling cheekily at him. "How about if you finish your Arithmancy essay I'll kiss you as much as your little heart desires," Blaise replied dryly.

Pepper scrunched up her nose in distaste. She really didn't want to do any more work, but it seemed inevitable. Sighing, she picked up her quill again in resignation. The problem with all this homework was that the monotony let her mind wander to things Pepper did not really want to think of, such as the demons trying to kill her baby cousin. The end of the quill found its way to her mouth and she started to suck on it as the thoughts began to seep into her homework-focus. "What if they find their way into Hogwarts again?" she thought aloud.

"Your focus is mad today," Blaise said in response. "Pepper, they're not going to get you; your aunts have surrounded this place in protection, and Dumbledore's got his eye on you, not to mention me, Potter, Weasley, and Granger. We've been over this a thousand times."

"Yes, I know. I'm sorry, I'll shut up. Sorry." She went back to her essay, trying to concentrate. Hermione would yell at her if she didn't have this essay done by tonight. The essay-writing was cut short a few seconds later by the dinner bell. "I guess its break time!" Pepper said happily, hurriedly stuffing her books and parchment rolls into her schoolbag. Blaise did the same and the walk to the Great Hall commenced.

Blaise was definitely the protective type. Wherever they walked, Blaise's arm found its way around her waist, pulling her to his side. On the weekends, when Pepper donned her Muggle clothing, his hand always slipped into her back pocket. He made a point of telling the whole school what was his, and that was perfectly fine with Pepper.

"Is your essay done?" Hermione wanted to know as Pepper sat down at the Gryffindor table.

"Of course not," Pepper said. "Where're Harry and Ron?"

"The last time I saw Ron was in my common room," Hermione said. "He might still be up there, though I don't know why he would be."

Pepper suddenly looked mischievous. "Think about this for a second, Hermione. The only reason Ron would be missing dinner to be in _your_ room while you are down here, eating, would be if he was planning something special. Something _really_ special."

Hermione got excited by this idea. "You think that's what he's doing: planning something?"

"Why else would Ron miss a meal?"

"I'd better take him some food," said Hermione, tucking back into her own meal, her entire face glowing.

"And where is dear Harry?" Pepper wondered.

"At the Slytherin table with his lovely girlfriend," said Hermione.

"That's the one thing Blaise refuses to do: sit at the Gryffindor table with me. I keep reminding him that he did it every day while we were in the past, but he doesn't even want to talk about that. I guess it's his worst nightmare to sit with a bunch of pansy Gryffindors." She glanced across the hall, searching for Harry and Candie. "Do you think he loves her?" she thought aloud.

"I honestly can't say," Hermione said, still grinning broadly from the prospect that Ron was planning something special for her. "Isn't it a good thing if he does? Of all people, Harry deserves happiness."

"I completely agree with you…except I wish he'd fall in love with someone else."

"Why do you have such a problem with Candie?"

"She really gets on my nerves," Pepper said, stabbing her chicken vehemently. "She struts around, trying to irk me because she's got Harry and I don't. She doesn't understand that I don't even _fancy_ Harry anymore. It's not that I'm jealous of her, it's that she _does it_ that gets on my nerves."

"Well, Pepper, I think you're going to have to get over your annoyance with Candie because it looks like Harry's serious about her."

"Sadly," said Pepper. "Why don't you go up to your room and see what your Ronnikins is up to?"

Smiling, Hermione got up and left the table, taking a few dinner rolls with her. "See you later tonight, Pepper," she said with a wave before going out the large wooden doors of the Great Hall.

Pepper was now excited for Hermione; she hoped that Ron was really planning something; otherwise Pepper would feel quite bad about getting Hermione's hopes up. And now, Pepper was sitting alone. She figured her best bet would be to finish eating quickly and go back to her essay. Her aunts didn't want her to go anywhere alone, but what harm could be done in so short a time in the library? She was sure that Blaise would join her in studying again once he was done with his meal.

It took Blaise an hour to make his way back to the library where Pepper was waiting impatiently, angry with the fact that she now had no excuse not to write her essay.

Blaise came to their usual back table in a huff of black robes and disgruntled demeanor. He fell strangely unceremoniously into his chair. "What's wrong, Blaise?" Pepper asked, concerned, dropping her quill onto the table.

"That fecking wanker Trent is wrong," Blaise grumbled.

Pepper's head tilted to the side in confusion. "Did something happen?"

Blaise looked up at her, trying to hide his cold expression. "He thinks he _owns_ you, Black. He's going on about how I'm not good enough for you, how you're a whore, how it's not over between the two of you yet."

"You're kidding me." Pepper's mouth was agape.

"You need to watch out for him, Black. He might try something shifty."

"Well what did you say to him?"

"I punched him, for one. But that was after I told him he needs to get his fucking head on straight."

Pepper was torn between admonishing Blaise for the punch and cheering him on for it. She settled for shaking her head in distaste at Trent. "What is his problem?" she wondered aloud. "He should have gotten the picture by now."

"Just be careful around him, Black, I don't want you to get hurt."

Exhausted, Pepper made her way back up to the Heads common room. Arithmancy functions were sliding behind her eyelids at a million miles per hour. All she wanted to do was sleep.

The sight she was met with near the fireplace was enough to prove to her that she was right about her Ron suspicions. A table for two, laden with empty plates, a single candle and a wine bottle, was set up next to the fireplace. The chairs were pulled out, a robe lying across the back of one of them.

Another thought jumped into Pepper's mind: what if Ron and Hermione were up in Hermione's bed right now, shagging? She wasn't sure what to do. Bed was her ultimate goal, but if she went up to Hermione's room she may be met with a sight she didn't want to see. Her other options were sleeping on the couch or going to Draco's room, and she wasn't too fond of those. Still, she was bushed and needed to get to bed straight away.

Her weary feet carried her up Draco's staircase to his door. "What?" he called from inside.

"Can I sleep with you?" Pepper asked through the wood.

The door opened a second later, an eager-looking Draco standing in the doorway. "Oh," he said disappointedly when he saw who had come knocking. "Normally, I would jump at the chance, Halliwell, but considering we're distantly related and all…"

"No, you perv, I think Hermione's a little busy right now and it wouldn't be hue of me to walk into her room. Can I sleep in your bed completely unsexually?"

"Sure, c'mon in," Draco said, stepping aside to admit the obviously tired girl. She entered the dorm gratefully, dropping her schoolbag and robes near the door and collapsing on the bed on her back, spread-eagled. "So Granger and Weasley are shagging?"

"I'm not entirely sure, but I didn't really want to find out," Pepper said. Her fingers worked at her Gryffindor tie, slipping it off of her neck. Kicking off her shoes onto the floor, she sat up again and looked at Draco. "Who were you expecting me to be?"

Draco looked confused.

"At the door, I mean. You looked disappointed when you saw it was me."

Now Draco looked guilty. "I wasn't _expecting_ anyone…" He trailed off, and wouldn't meet her eyes.

Pepper's tiredness suddenly dispersed at this new information. "Who were you _hoping_ I would be, then?" Draco decided to take this opportunity to go into the toilet. "Draco?" Pepper prompted, following him. He was busily putting a sliver of toothpaste onto his toothbrush. Once the brush was in his mouth, he motioned that he couldn't say anything. Pepper crossed her arms at him, raising an eyebrow in skepticism. "I'll wait then."

He couldn't brush his teeth forever. After a ridiculously long time, he finally rinsed out his mouth and swiped it across a towel.

"Is there a special girl you've failed to tell me about?" Pepper asked him.

"I don't have to tell you everything, Halliwell."

"Oh stuff it, you sound like Blaise," she rebuked. "You don't _have_ to tell me, but I'd strongly like to know."

"Why is it a concern of yours?"

"Fine, you don't have to tell me, I'm already taking your bed tonight. And one of your shirts thanks." She left the threshold of the bathroom and went to rummage in Draco's wardrobe. Pulling out one of his casual long-sleeved shirts, she put it on over her uniform and unbuttoned her white school shirt under the larger one. Once she was stripped of her school uniform, she pushed past Draco and went into the bathroom, brushing her teeth with her finger. With Draco still standing by the entrance to the loo, Pepper climbed into his bed, wriggling herself under the blankets. She blew out the candle on the nightstand, leaving the room in darkness. "G'night my dear Draco. Thank you for sharing your wonderful bed."

The exhaustion was creeping back over her, and she yawned. If Draco didn't want to divulge his secrets, then that was fine with her, but she was going to bed. She would find out eventually who Draco had wanted to be at the door.

Pepper joined Draco and Blaise at the Slytherin table the next morning. "It's about time you woke up," Draco commented when she sat down next to Blaise. Pepper's head found Blaise's shoulder: she was still tired and wearing a dirty uniform.

"Yeah, well, sleeping with you is really uncomfortable."

Blaise tensed up at this statement, alert. "_What_?" he cried.

"Relax, Zabini, we're related," Draco comforted, shoveling beans onto his fork. "Plus, I've seen her starkers before."

Pepper felt Blaise relax under her head. "I've still ever heard this story," he said.

"Hopefully you never will," Pepper replied, not really wanting to relive the memory of the night she thought Draco got her pregnant.

"Wait, why weren't you in Hermione's bed last night?" Blaise wondered.

"Because I suspect Hermione was _sleeping with_ something else." Pepper picked her head up from Blaise's shoulder and turned around, looking for Hermione and Ron at the Gryffindor table. Neither of them was there.

"Granger, give up her precious virginity? There's no way," Blaise said in disbelief, shaking his head.

"Would you like to bet on it, Mr. Zabini?" Pepper asked.

Blaise looked at her amusedly. "You're on, Black. I bet you twenty Galleons that Granger and Weasley didn't shag last night."

With a smirk, Pepper agreed to the terms. She was definitely winning this bet.

"Would you look at that?" Draco said, motioning towards the Great Hall's entrance. Sure enough, Hermione and Ron were walking through the doors, fingers entwined, trying not to let their grins split their faces in two.

"Looks like you lose, Blaise, sorry," Pepper said. Giving him a quick kiss on the cheek, she got up and made her way over to the Gryffindor table. Harry soon appeared by her side; he'd been sitting at the Slytherin table as well.

"What happened?" Harry asked her quietly as they approached the table.

"I think it's something big," Pepper replied, equally as quiet.

Hermione and Ron were sitting so close they appeared to be taped together. Harry and Pepper sat across from the two, looking expectant. The couple was clearly not expecting this, for some reason. "Hi, guys," Hermione greeted, looking slightly nervous. "Pepper, you didn't come back to the room last night."

"Should I have?" Pepper asked.

Hermione blushed. "I-I don't think so," she stuttered. Neither she nor Ron said anything else.

"C'mon you two, you shagged, it's obvious."

Harry turned his head slowly, looking at Pepper with suspicion. She hadn't told Harry or Ron about the shower shagging yet. For some reason, she didn't want to see their reaction. After a smile was flashed in Harry's direction, he turned from Pepper back to the lovebirds. "You two actually shagged?" Harry hissed in disbelief, the fact hitting him abruptly. "I can't believe it."

Ron and Hermione were both as red as Ron's hair, but they were both glowing with happiness.

Hermione had lost her virginity in the romantic way that every girl dreamed of, Hermione later informed Pepper in her dormitory. Pepper was listening intently to Hermione's tale. Ron had planned romantic dessert and wine in the common room. (He had counted on Hermione's skipping out of dinner early when she realized he was missing.) They had dined by candlelight, shared a few glasses of wine, and the snogging began. There was a moment, Hermione said, that they both just realized that tonight was the night; it had been incredibly romantic, but incredibly awkward.

At this, Hermione flopped onto the bed beside Pepper, looking worriedly at her friend. "Was it terribly awkward with Blaise?"

Pepper considered this. "Well," she said, "he knew what he was doing, so he sort of took charge. But your first time is supposed to be awkward, right? And your time was probably ten times more special than mine because you're in love, it was with Ron's real body, and he tried so adorably hard to make it wonderful for you. Plus, it was in a bed and you were trying everything new _together_." These points were making Pepper a little depressed. But sex with Blaise had _started _their relationship and proved to her that he really had feelings for her and didn't just want to shag her and dump her. "The most important thing is how you're feeling right now."

Her friend had to take a little time to contemplate this before a broad smile broke out on her face. "Brilliant," she replied. "I'm a little sore, but it was amazing with Ron. He was so caring and lovely…the sex, I'll admit, could have been better, but _Ron_ was perfect. It was just…we're completely connected now. I love him more than anything in the world, Pepper. He completes me, as cliché as that sounds. I never want to leave him." A blush rose on her cheeks again and she smiled sheepishly.

At this point, Pepper couldn't help but hug her tightly. Hermione had only ever pined after one boy, (no, _man_, after everything they had seen during the war), and he just happened to be the perfect one. As cliché as _she_ sounded, Pepper was truly happy for her friends; it would have been awful if their relationship hadn't worked out once they'd finally gotten together.

"I feel like I'm so transparent, though," Hermione admitted. She pulled away from Pepper's embrace. "I tried to find a book that would explain how it feels afterward; I mean, I learned about pregnancy prevention and…and a lot of other things, but I couldn't find anything that explains this feeling to me."

Pepper smiled at Hermione's predictability and practicality. She knew, however, how Hermione was feeling; she knew that feeling of frightening nakedness. Though, Hermione's nakedness might not be so frightening. "Are you scared of what will happen to your relationship?"

"Absolutely not," said a proud Hermione at once. "The only thing I'm afraid of is that Ron will want to shag all the time now." The blush was darkening on Hermione's cheeks. Then she began to giggle giddily.

That was the major difference between Pepper's sex and Hermione's sex: Pepper had been terrified about telling anyone about it or facing Blaise, while Hermione had attached herself to her lover, making it obvious they had _made love_.

Dwelling on that was not something Pepper wanted to do at the moment. Right now, she wanted to dwell on Hermione's happiness and the stupid demons that were still trying to capture her and her cousin. And she made a promise to herself to tell Harry about her meeting with Blaise in the bathroom tonight.

He didn't take the news spectacularly when she confronted him that night in the Gryffindor common room. His first reaction was to stare at her blankly. Then he said, "Were you safe?"

Pepper always felt fabulous when people cared about her so much. Harry's question was met with a nod. She knew she was treading on careful ground and reminded herself to hold her tongue on sarcastic remarks. "He didn't hurt me or anything bad, either. Well, I guess that much is obvious because we're together now. I like him a lot, Harry."

"That much is obvious," Harry pointed out. "Though, I'm not sure if I like it."

"But are you upset with me?" she wanted to know.

Harry paused, leaving Pepper in suspense. "I'm only upset that you didn't tell me when it happened."

"I know, and I'm sorry. I just didn't want you to be angry or attack Blaise…and I couldn't deal with it myself, at first. I wanted to make sure everything was alright before I told anyone about it. That way there wouldn't be a reason for anyone to break the two of us up before we'd even begun."

"I guess I can understand that," Harry concurred. "Still, are you sure that Zabini is the one you want to be with?"

Pepper shot him a derisive look. "Right back at cha." There was a silence, both of them chuckling. The question Pepper had been talking to Hermione about earlier sprung out: "Do you love her?"

This time there was an even larger pause. "It may be getting there."

Due to her extreme dislike of Candie Marie Lowell, Pepper was glad. Then the guilt set in because she was wishing against Harry's unhappiness. She just smiled genuinely in response. "Are you happy?" Pepper wondered.

It was Harry's turn to smile. "For the first time in a long time," he answered.


	13. Chapter Thirteen: Rumor

**I'm on 8 alert lists and 9 favorite lists, and yet I'm only saying thank you to three lone reviewers! C'mon guys, it doesn't take that long to review!!! And they make my day so much brighter! Anyway, here's a short and sort of weird chapter! Another one is on the way soon, I promise! The more reviews the more chapters!**

**Enjoy!**

**HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP**

Chapter Thirteen

Arriving back at the portrait to the Heads common room, Pepper found Trent holding a bunch of daisies. He was standing right next to the painting, and Pepper stopped a few feet away from him, startled.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

He smiled at her. "I wanted to talk to you. I wondered why you've been hanging out with Blaise Zabini lately. I thought we were still together, Pepper."

"I clearly dumped you, Trent. Even if you didn't hear that, I think the fact that I haven't talked to you in, oh, about two weeks," Pepper replied acidly.

"C'mon, Pepper, don't be like this," he said, trying to hand her the flowers.

She looked at him disgustedly, his creepiness affecting her now. "Be like _what?_ We were never together, Trent. I don't want to see your face. I don't want to talk to you."

He looked pleadingly at her for a moment, the fire building in his eyes, scaring Pepper. An arm reached out for her, and she backed away. "Stay the fuck away from me or I'm going to the Headmaster," she warned before freezing him, spitting the password at the portrait hurriedly, and running inside to the nice safe common room. Her feet carried her up Hermione's staircase and into the bedroom. She shut the door swiftly and silently behind her. For some reason, she was entirely too freaked out right now.

All of the lights in the room were already out and Hermione seemed to be asleep. Pepper slowed her breathing, calmed herself, and closed her eyes before she was ready to get ready for bed.

As she climbed into the gigantic, plush bed with shaky limbs, she wondered why she was so frightened. Trent hadn't actually _done_ anything to her…she figured that it was the mere fact that he had been _waiting for her with flowers_…the look in his eyes… well, _everything_. Blaise was right: she had to be careful around him.

The rumors began the next morning. Pepper heard the fluttering whispers down the length of her own Gryffindor table, the strange stares coming her way, the whispering behind hands. Hogwarts was no stranger to gossip, but Pepper had never experienced negative gossip towards herself like this. She wasn't even sure what they were saying about her, but she knew who they were talking about.

Pepper decided to transfer herself over to the Slytherin table where they didn't really give a damn about her, save a few people, namely the one she was squeezing in beside right now. Unfortunately, he didn't acknowledge her for a minute, until he said, "What happened with your wanker last night?"

Pepper was puzzled. "First off," she said, "I'm a girl." This comment earned her a scathing look from Blaise, which puzzled her even further. "Do you mean Trent?" she wondered. Blaise's silence was accepted as a "yes." "He was waiting creepily for me outside Hermione and Draco's common room last night with flowers. I froze him and ran inside after telling him to stay the hell away from me." Just thinking about the incident made Pepper shiver.

"That's not what we heard," Draco said in a sing-song voice.

"What did you hear?" Pepper asked sharply.

"That you were busy last night," said Blaise. There was no emotion in his voice, which Pepper knew to be a bad sign.

Pepper suddenly became short of breath. So that was what the Gryffindors were yammering about. "Who told you that?"

"It's all around the school." Blaise obviously didn't believe Pepper's explanation. Pepper stood up angrily. "I don't nee this, Blaise. If you don't believe me then that's fine."

Holding her head high, fighting angry tears, Pepper strode out of the Great Hall. She would have gone over to Trent to smack him a few times, but she didn't want to see his face at the moment. Blaise was obviously not thinking straight: how could he believe rumors over her? But she would deal with it later. Right now it was time for class.

Lying on the stones of the floor before the Gryffindor common room was a daisy. Pepper stopped dead in her tracks, her heart threatening to burst from her ribcage. Trent was planning now, using his brain: he knew Blaise wouldn't be too happy about the rumors.

Pepper stood there, staring at the flower from what seemed to be her stalker, until the rest of Gryffindor tower came up to the portrait hole, pushing past her, getting their books for their first classes. This snapped Pepper out of her haze, and she retrieved her books as well.

After a morning full of classes in which Blaise didn't meet her eye, Pepper followed him stealthily up to the Heads common room during their first free hour. Pepper waited a few minutes after he had gone through the portrait before going in herself. She had a plan to get him to pay attention to her. He had to listen.

Confidently, Pepper announced the password to the portrait and walked into the room. Blaise, who had been sitting on the couch, staring thoughtfully into the empty fireplace grate, looked up when she entered. He opened his mouth to say something, but Pepper was too swift: she hurried over to him, put one knee deftly on either side of his waist, and put her lips onto his. Her kiss was so passionate that it was impossible for him not to respond; his hands snaked under her robes, around her waist, while her hands grasped his curly tresses, hard. She wanted him to understand how much she cared about him. When she was out of breath, she finally pulled away from his lips, looking down at him. "I would never cheat on you, Blaise, you should know that." Her voice came out huskier than she would have liked. Blaise always had that effect on her. "Why would you believe _anything_ coming out of that fucking Ravenclaw's mouth?"

"I don't know." The statement came out as a whisper before he stretched his neck up to kiss her again.

"Are you sorry?" she asked.

He hesitated. Pepper smirked at his struggle to emit the words. For some reason, Slytherins had a very difficult time apologizing. The only time Pepper had ever heard an apology from Blaise was after they had sex.

He settled for kissing her a third time instead of actually saying the words. "I need to beat the shit out of him, don't I?" he said.

That was when Pepper remembered the flower that had been waiting outside the Gryffindor common room. She told Blaise about it and watched the anger building in his face. "He's just looking for a fight."

Pepper slid off of Blaise's lap, sideways, so that she was cuddled up next to him. "Does the whole school believe I slept with him?"

"They shouldn't when they see we're still together," Blaise replied logically. "Besides, if anyone says anything, I'll kick their arses too."

"A little violent, are we?" Pepper teased.

"Just pissed off."

"Hermione and Ron really slept together," Pepper added suddenly. "In a bed. With candles."

"Is that regret I hear?" Blaise asked, sounding amused.

"It was just so unexpected, you know? It wasn't even our real selves."

"I'm fully aware of this, Black. Does this mean you're ready for another go?" She could tell he was smirking even though she couldn't see his face.

"You wish," Pepper shot back.


	14. Chapter Fourteen: Fighting Trent

**Chapter Fourteen**

An owl came the next morning carrying a letter from Phoebe.

_Dear Pepper,_

_I hope you're not too worried about the demon situation; we've been all over it here. We haven't found anything out as of yet, but Wyatt's been staying at Magic School much of the time, just to be safe. I've been worried about you. I know you've been thinking about the danger a lot, right? There's no need to worry too much right now, Pepper, you're the safest you can be at Hogwarts._

_Speaking of which, what's going on with you and Blaise? You didn't tell us too much in your last letter, just that you'd gotten together. You haven't been having a lot of sex, have you? You shouldn't. Don't take after me, please. Make sure that Blaise is with you because he wants to be with you, not just wants to _be with you_. I love you and I want you to be happy. Blaise seems like a great, loyal guy and I really hope it works out with him._

_And how're Hermione and Ron? Well, I suppose I should be asking Hermione that. She sent us a letter a few days ago and I need to reply, so never mind that question._

_Now for the big news…well, I'm not really sure how to tell you this…when we were fighting a demon (big surprise) the other day, a boy…he's twenty-something I think…appeared in our attic and basically saved us. How weird does that sound? His name's Chris, by the way. We've established that he's not a demon. Oh, his reason for appearing in the attic? He's from the future, apparently, and he's come to save you and Wyatt because in the future Wyatt is evil. He didn't say anything about what you are in the future, though, or why he needs to save you. We're trying to figure that out._

_Take a moment and re-read that. Yes, that's what it actually says. And yes, it's the truth. So right now we're deciding what to do with him. Leo doesn't trust him at all, but the three of us are warming up to him. As soon as we decide, I'll let you know._

_Love,_

_Phoebe_

Wordlessly, Pepper handed the letter across the table to Hermione. Pepper was gob smacked. _Someone from the future appeared in the attic?_ What was happening to their lives?

Hermione's face mirrored Pepper's when she finished reading the letter. Pepper wanted desperately to go home right now. "I'll come with you to the Headmaster's office after breakfast," Hermione said, clearly reading Pepper's expression. She handed the letter back across the table to Pepper.

After breakfast, the two girls went to the Headmaster's office. They both needed to know what was going on. Dumbledore gave them permission to Floo to the Manor for the afternoon.

As soon as they blew out of the Manor's fireplace, they found themselves in the middle of an apparently heated conversation. Pepper's aunts, Uncle Leo and a young man with floppy brown hair and hard face Pepper assumed to be Chris, all stopped mid-sentence to stare at the two girls on the hearth rug. Pepper and Hermione stood, brushing themselves off. "Hi," Pepper greeted casually, before she and her friend were bombarded with suffocating hugs. "We couldn't sit by waiting for your news after that letter, Aunt Phoebe," Pepper explained once her aunt released her. "Hermione and I had to meet Chris from the future." She looked at the floppy-haired man in the room with a slight smile.

"You must be Pepper," he said, not returning the smile. He sounded like he was an all-business kind of person.

"And you must be Chris from the future," she replied. Then she looked at her aunts. "What were you guys talking about before we Flooed in?"

Piper looked exasperatedly at Leo. "Leo and Chris are having some problems," she said. "I think we need to get them away from each other."

"I just had a great idea," Phoebe said suddenly.

"That's never a good sentence," Pepper mumbled.

Phoebe glared at her before saying, "Chris could go with Pepper to Hogwarts to watch out for her there. Last time we thought it was protected we found that the demons could still get into the school. But now we have someone to spare! I'm sure Dumbledore could find something for Chris to do there."

"No!" Pepper and Chris exclaimed at the same time.

"I have to be here to protect Wyatt," Chris said hurriedly in his no-nonsense manner.

"It was bad enough that my aunts were at Hogwarts last year, I don't need a kid from the future tailing me around," Pepper argued.

"Hey, I'm here to help," Chris shot back at her.

"I think Chris needs to stay here to help," said Pepper. "Wyatt is much more defenseless than I am."

"I agree," said Chris. "I came here to help Wyatt."

"Leo is going to go insane if you stick around, Chris," Piper admonished.

"I don't think the Headmaster will like Chris coming to Hogwarts," Pepper tried. "There's too much publicity around me at the moment, anyhow."

Phoebe raised an eyebrow at her. "What are you talking about?"

"Just a few rumors is all," Pepper said, trying to get back to the matter at hand. "Besides, _I _don't know if Chris is trustworthy, he just popped out of the future claiming to be helpful and I think that maybe I'll go crazy if he's at Hogwarts. I think that I can basically take care of myself at Hogwarts, what with all the crystals and my powers and my friends."

"Chris is perfectly trustworthy," Paige said. "He saved me from dying. He's here to fix the future and I think we should be willing to help all we can."

"Chris is willing to help here, in the Manor," said Pepper. "I only came by to meet him and see what was going on, maybe see my little cousin."

"Pepper, perhaps you should stop fighting with your aunts," Hermione piped up. "They're trying to do what's best for you."

Pepper hated it when Hermione was obviously right.

"You know you've been worrying about the demons," Hermione continued. "If Chris is there he can add some extra protection and you won't have to be so concerned. It's not fair to Blaise that you've been making him so worried, too."

While Pepper was considering this, Phoebe asked, "How is Blaise?"

"Fabulous," Pepper replied, again spreading across her face. "There was a little trouble because of these rumors going around about me, but its okay now. And we're not…you know…doing the thing that you were asking about…a lot. I don't know if that made any sense."

Phoebe smiled at her. "That's good to know." Then she turned to Hermione. "And how's Ron?"

A blush rose quickly up Hermione's face. "He's—we're brilliant." She bowed her head in embarrassment, giving away more than she wanted to. For the past few days, whenever anyone mentioned Ron, Hermione turned bright red.

"I think there's a story bursting to be told there," said Phoebe, picking up on the insinuation of Hermione's blush.

"Which we'll save for later," said Piper. "Right now we need to go meet with the Headmaster. Besides, should you two be in class?"

Pepper glowered, but Hermione, in her usual helpful manner, said, "We should go by Floo." So, one-by-one they Flooed back to Dumbledore's office.

He appeared to be waiting for them. After all niceties were considered, the Headmaster sent Pepper and Hermione back to class, promising to send them a message by owl after they came to an agreement.

"This is ridiculous," Pepper grumbled as the bell rang, marking the end of Histroy of Magic.

"Do you have your Potions essay in your bag?" Hermione asked.

"Of course. Hermione, what if Chris stays?"

"You'll have to learn to deal with it. He's here to help."

"What I'm wondering is _who_ is he, really."

"That's something for us to find out, I suppose. I doubt he wants to reveal what he doesn't have to in order to keep the future intact."

Naturally, the Charmed Ones convinced Professor Dumbledore to allow Chris room and board at Hogwarts in order to protect Pepper. He was made Hagrid's gamekeeper assistant for free range of the castle and surrounding grounds. By suggestion of Dumbledore, no one was to be told why Chris was there.

Thus, he moved into one of the spare rooms on the first floor. Chris, like Pepper, didn't seem to be too happy about this arrangement, but, at the insistence of the Halliwells, stayed. Apparently he was half Whitelighter and, therefore, could orb back to the Manor whenever he pleased and still keep an eye on Pepper.

"This is going to be so much fun," Pepper said facetiously after she explained the situation to Harry. "Especially added to the escalating rumors."

"Don't let them get to you, Pep," Harry told her. "Just focus on school and Blaise. You've been though worse. I was going to meet Ron in the common room, do you want to come?"

"Sure." The pair grabbed their school bags and made their way out of Gryffindor Tower. "Do you miss the time we spent together before we got boyfriends and girlfriends?"

Harry shrugged. "I like Candie a lot."

Pepper paused, her American teenage mind kicking in. "That sounds so raunchy, Harry." She started to laugh and couldn't stop until she saw the two daises outside the Heads' room.

Harry bent down slowly and picked the flowers up. "There's a note attached." He opened it and read,

"_Sweetheart-_

_I'm sorry that these rumors are upsetting your boyfriend. If you ever need any comforting my door is always open. I know you'll realize I'm the better boyfriend one day._

_Love,_

_Trent"_

Shakily, albeit loudly, Pepper announced the password to the portrait, took the paper and flowers from Harry, and marched into the room, past Hermione and Ron snogging on the hearth, up to Draco's bedroom, where she suspected Blaise would be. She knocked on the door and entered without waiting for an answer. Blaise was lounging on the luxurious bed and Draco in a chair; their conversation stopped abruptly when Pepper entered the room. Before either could say anything, Pepper lobbed the offensive present of Trent onto the bed beside her boyfriend, and watched his face harden into anger. He passed it to his friend with a livid growl and stood, striding out of the dorm room and down to the common room, where Harry seemed to have filled Hermione and Ron in on what had happened. Soon after, Draco came down the stairs. As Blaise exited the common room with a mantra of "He's dead", Draco, Hermione, Pepper, Ron and Harry followed.

Draco and Hermione, being head boy and girl, knew the exact location of the Ravenclaw common room, and therefore lead the group. When their angry procession arrived at the suit of armor, Hermione murmured the password and entered, motioning for the rest of them to remain outside for a minute. Blaise passed the time making angry circles around the small corridor, still muttering his mantra.

Hermione emerged from the common room a few minutes later, Trent in tow. Upon seeing who was awaiting him in the hallway, he tried to retreat back to the haven of his common room, but Harry grabbed his forearm forcefully. "We need to discuss something with you," he said.

Blaise didn't wait for any discussion; he launched himself, catlike, at Trent.

Trent was pinned to the ground, Blaise's arm across his throat. "Blaise," Pepper squeaked warily, through she wasn't sure what she was trying to accomplish with the word. Blaise's face was close to Trent's, his voice a low, threatening growl as he said, "This is your last warning: stay the fuck away from Pepper. She's my girlfriend and it's going to stay that way. There's nothing you can do about it."

"Let's go," Hermione said, sounding a little nervous, as if she didn't want to be caught in this situation. She began the walk back to the common room, Pepper coming up alongside her.

With a last threatening look, Blaise removed himself from Trent and followed everyone else down the hallway.

Pepper wanted as much space between her and Trent as possible. Finally, he would leave her alone.

Only a few seconds later, however, she heard a shout, and scuffling sounds followed. Whipping around, Pepper say a fight had broken out between Blaise and Trent. Wide-eyed, Pepper watched as Draco jumped into the fight, Harry and Ron standing by.

"She's mine!" were the two words Pepper could make out in all the shouting. Her fists clenched.

"STOP THIS INSTANT!" Hermione ordered, using her best McGonagall voice.

The boys didn't listen to her. It was obvious Trent was being beaten, but before they knew it a clan of Ravenclaw boys came down the other end of the hallway and joined the fight, causing Harry and Ron to join as well.

Pepper was not biting her fingernails worriedly, trying to think of something to say to break up the fight that was all happening so fast. Hermione was practically screaming at them now. "I AM GOING TO GET THE HEADMASTER!"

Even that didn't stop them. There were shouts coming from the mob of fighting boys. It seemed to Pepper that the fight was going on for hours, when, in reality, it had been less than a minute.

Hermione turned to Pepper, looking angry and desperate. "Can't you freeze them?" she asked.

Wondering why she hadn't thought of that before, Pepper froze the mass of boys. Harry, of course, didn't free, and it took him a moment to realize what had happened. He turned to Hermione and Pepper, slightly confused, before stepping out of the frozen pile, righting his glasses.

"Fighting is not the answer, Harry," said Hermione sternly.

"I had to help," Harry told her. "You couldn't expect me just to sit here and not do anything."

Hermione's face was still stern, but she didn't say anything in response to Harry. "Well, it's time for this to stop."

Pepper didn't think it was the appropriate time to tell Hermione that it was pretty cool that she had boys fighting over her, even if one of them was really creepy.

"I think I should go for the Headmaster," Hermione continued. "I'm afraid someone's going to get hurt."

"Trent's already hurt," Harry said, sounding smug.


	15. Chapter Fifteen: Chris of the Future

Author's Note: Surprise

**Author's Note: Surprise! I'm back!**

**Chapter Fifteen**

Blaise had a black eye, but he returned to the heads' common room with the biggest smirk Pepper had ever seen. In Draco's common room, Hermione was giving her fellow Head a stern talking to about his behavior and the two night's worth of detention he and the other boys received.

"I sprained his arm," Blaise announced, taking a seat on the sofa. Pepper got up from her seat and went over to him, punching Blaise on the arm and then kissing him.

"Violence is bad, Blaise," she tried to scold, but she was smiling. "Thanks for protecting me, though."

"He shouldn't be bothering you anymore."

"There are other ways, however, to get what you want without defending your male ego like that."

"Excuse me?"

"I know that fight was more to defend your status and boost your ego than to actually help me, Blaise," said Pepper, raising a skeptical eyebrow. "But it's totally okay," she added quickly, not wanting him to get angry at her.

"I was trying to stop the wanker from stalking you," he pointed out.

"And you proved your manly worth," Pepper grinned. "I thank you kind sir, for your indubitable defense."

Blaise was amused, but tried not to look that way.

"Have you seen Chris of the future?" Pepper wondered, leaning her head on the back of the sofa.

"I don't know what he looks like, Black. Besides, you haven't even asked about my black eye achieved through manly means," her boyfriend countered.

"I apologize, my lovely night in shining armor," she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. She leaned over to get close to his face, examining his battle wound, poking the corner of his eye with her finger. His eye involuntarily blinked and his hand brushed hers away. "That's what you get," she said teasingly, covering his mouth with hers. "Are Harry and Ron all right?"

Blaise shrugged, uncaring, and Pepper hit him again. "They could be," he replied after he was hit.

"You're ridiculous. Are they in the hospital wing?"

Draco decided to take this moment to stomp melodramatically down his staircase and into the common room, Hermione wearily in tow. Judging by the smirk on his face, he seemed to be proud of his handiwork on the Ravenclaws as well. Hermione's face was flushed, and she sat angrily at her common room worktable, ignoring her fellow Head.

"Hermione's right, and I hope you both know that," scolded Pepper. "Violence only solves things temporarily, not long term. Don't get me wrong: thank you for beating the shit out of him, but I'm just afraid he's going to come back."

The first encounter with Chris occurred the next day, while Pepper was walking to class with her boyfriend, his arm extra-protectively and obviously around her waist, shielding her from recently assaulted stalker Trent. Chris was strolling down the Potions corridor in the dungeons, scrutinizing his surroundings. When he saw Pepper, he just looked at her for a moment, seeming to contemplate whether or not to acknowledge her. Embarrassment threatened as Pepper and Blaise walked passed him, the Slytherin not knowing who Chris was, his hand resting on the top of his girlfriend's arse. She turned her head back to look at Chris as they continued down the corridor, and he nodded his head ever so slightly to let her know that he was watching out for her. Pepper faced forward once again and whispered to Blaise, "That's Chris. Behind us."

Blaise whipped his head around to look, but Pepper admonished, "Don't be so obvious!" and by the time he got his head all the way around, Chris was gone.

"Oh, now I know what he looks like," said Blaise sarcastically.

"I wonder what he's up to, coming back to this time?" Pepper wondered aloud, ignoring Blaise's remark.

"They already told you, Black: he's trying to save you and your cousin from turning evil."

"_No,_ they said he's trying to save _Wyatt_ from turning evil. They never said anything about me in the future," Pepper corrected. "I wonder what I look like in the future. I wonder if I have any super cool powers of ultimate destruction."

Blaise shot her a look that told her it was time to shut up.

**PHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPH**

Her second encounter with Chris occurred only two days later, when Blaise's eye had healed and no trace of Trent had been seen. Pepper was leaving the Great Hall with her friends after lunch when a hand reached out and grabbed her by the arm, pulling her into a corner of the Entrance Hall. She was startled, but didn't cry out when she saw it was Chris.

"I wanted to tell you something," he said.

Pepper's friends didn't seem to notice that she'd disappeared, and they walked up the staircase and out of sight.

"I don't want to be here any more than you want me to be," Chris continued. "I came back to this time to save Wyatt and change my future, and that is still what I intend to do. Saving you may just be a bonus."

Pepper put on her best, _oh-really-is-that-how-you-see-it-mister_ face, and stared at the stranger incredulously. "And what, exactly, do I need saving from?"

"I don't want to change the future by telling you."

"I thought you were here to change the future, _Chris_."

"Look, _Pepper_," he shot back, "Wyatt is my first priority. If I can keep him from turning evil it will save you, your family, and most of the world. I promised the sisters that I would hang around you for a while, but I'm not planning on staying for long. As of now, I'm looking after you, but popping back to the Manor periodically. I just wanted to let you know what's going on so you don't think I'm doing anything suspicious."

Pepper, of course, couldn't let this go without a fight. "I think you're suspicious in the first place," she said. "I don't know how anyone believes your intentions are pure. I, for one, won't believe this horrible future until I see it."

"Be careful what you wish for," Chris warned quirking an eyebrow at her. "You never know what will happen to you in the magical world."

**PHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP**

"That sounds like a threat to me," said Hermione later, after Pepper relayed the story to her in her common room. "How can the sisters trust him?"

"I'm not sure," said Pepper, stretching out on the couch. "I think they don't entirely trust him, which is why they sent him here. There are more people to watch out for him here. For all we know, he could be the one that sent us back to the past."

"How does Blaise feel about all if this? I know he's not one for attention, and you're certainly getting a lot of it lately."

"He seems to be handling it well," Pepper said. "Better than I'm handling it, anyhow. There are still so many things he doesn't know about my life, you know? The scary thing is, I don't know how long he'll be willing to stay to find out. I mean, he seems like he's enjoying being with me, but I come with so much baggage."

"Pepper," Hermione said levelly, "if he didn't care about you, he wouldn't still be with you. However, that still doesn't solve the problem about what you're going to do about Chris."

"To tell you the truth, I don't think there is anything I _can_ do about him, other than keep an eye on him."

"Right now, Pepper, I think you need to be focusing on keeping yourself safe from demons. Your focus seems to be lax lately: I've noticed that you've been worrying less about the possible danger and more about Blaise. Personally, I think that you should be practicing with your powers in order to fight the demons; you never know when they could be back."

"Yes, well, I've just had a lot of things on my mind," Pepper countered, trying to defend herself.

"I know, and I understand, but you need to prioritize. If you don't, you might not be around long enough to worry about Blaise."

"Hermione, last year we fought Voldemort and his hoards of evil creatures. I think that I can handle a few little demons, especially with my aunts backing me up…and possibly Chris as well."

"You say that, but you don't know what you're up against, Pepper. This could be a threat bigger than Voldemort, and you don't want to face it unprepared."

"C'mon, Hermione, it's just a few demons that accidentally sent us to the wrong past. They're obviously not that bright, and when my aunts find out who that upper level demon is that is controlling them, they'll charm them right out of our lives."


	16. Chapter Sixteen: More Demons

Chapter Sixteen

**Chapter Sixteen**

The demons showed themselves the next day. Luckily, there were numerous magical people and spells guarding Hogwarts castle, or the demons would have advanced further into the grounds than the protectors allowed them. Chris and the Aurors made short work of them, since they were lower-level demons, but Pepper was still shaken.

The Headmaster shut her up in his office with a handful of Aurors in order to keep her safe in case more decided to come back. She sat there, in a regal, high-backed chair with her friends and professional fighters surrounding her. None of them could calm her down. She was extremely worried about her aunts and her little cousin, but none of those around her would allow her to do anything about it. She hated sitting there; she needed to be pro-active. It was possible that demons had gone after Wyatt as well, while she and Chris were occupied here at Hogwarts, and she needed to find this out. She desperately wanted to Mirror back to the Manor and see if she could be of any assistance, but they all had the reins pulled tightly on her. Hermione was clutching her hand, trying to be supportive. It wasn't working. Pepper was trying to keep all of her thoughts in her head and she was not allowing them to spew out of her mouth, however much she wanted that to happen.

Harry and Draco were trying not to suffocate her which was helpful, because Ron was seated closely to Hermione, clutching her in order to support her supporting Pepper, and Blaise was on Pepper's other side. He was not touching her because he was not really fond of public displays of intimacy, merely public displays of ownership. Still, Pepper knew he was there and he was worried. It _was_ nice to have all of these people who cared about her; even Draco was here to help keep her safe, though he would never admit that he felt compassion towards her. She appreciated their friendship, but right now she wanted to go to her aunts. She needed to know why the demons were doing this, and she needed to know now.

"I need to talk to Chris of the future," she said suddenly. Hers were the first words spoken aloud in a while, and everyone turned to her, slightly startled. "Hasn't he finished vanquishing the demons? Can't he come speak with me?"

"Pepper, you probably shouldn't leave this room until they've cleared the castle and insured that there are no demons left," Hermione said.

"I'm tired of waiting around like a scared little girl," Pepper fumed. "I need to know what's going on and I need to know it _now_. Chris is obviously aware of the reason the demons are after me, and I would for him to share it with me. I deserve to know why they are trying to kill me or capture me or whatever." She knew that she sounded slightly like a three-year-old. At this point, however, that was not her main concern.

"We just want to make sure it's safe first," said one of the Aurors.

Screw her safety. Pepper was so glad that she could freeze people, and that was exactly what she did. Harry looked surprised when Draco stopped pacing the room, though not as surprised as he had looked when Pepper froze the fight with Trent days ago.

"What are you up to now, Pepper?" he asked with a sigh.

"I'm going to see my aunts, I have to make sure they're okay," she replied, ignoring his tone. Closing her eyes, Pepper thought hard about the Manor attic, and appeared there a minute later after the rollercoaster feeling in her stomach.

The sight before her was promising and shocking. Her aunts had a demon trapped between three crystals, beams of energy emitting from each crystal and forming a dome of light that the demon could not escape from.

"Pepper!" Phoebe exclaimed when she saw that her niece had just appeared in the attic. "What are you doing here?"

"Demons just attempted to get into Hogwarts," Pepper explained, keeping a wary eye on the trapped demon. "Chris of the future got them, I think; they wouldn't let me see him. I wanted to make sure that my cousin was okay."

"Yeah, Wyatt's fine," said Piper. "We were obviously attacked by some demons as well. I'm glad our protection spells held up at Hogwarts."

"We're _trying_ to get some information out of this demon," said Paige, sighing and landing heavily in an armchair. "He doesn't seem to know anything, though. He got his info from an upper level demon, who got his orders from someone else, apparently." She casually threw a potion at the demon, and he instantly blew up, the crystal cage containing the explosion. "He's got nothing," Paige said, frustrated.

"So the demons didn't get to you at all?" Phoebe asked Pepper. "No one got hurt?"

"I don't think so," Pepper replied. "They didn't let me help fight them or anything, so I can't even tell you what the stupid things looked like. I wanted to make sure you guys were okay, so I Mirrored on over."

"What, so you don't think we can't take care of ourselves now?" Piper teased. "Last time I checked, Pepper Halliwell, you were the child in the family."

"Yeah, yeah," said Pepper. "I'm sorry I care about my aunts. I'll just stop doing that."

"Pepper…did you have permission to Mirror here?" Phoebe asked tentatively.

Pepper smiled guiltily. "Not quite."

"Then you should probably get back to Hogwarts before they send out a search party," Paige pointed out. "As much as we love your random visits, we'd also love for you to stay in school."

When Pepper arrived back in the Headmaster's office, most everyone was angry with her. The Aurors immediately reprimanded her for disappearing on their watch, and then they began to plan ways to block this type of transportation: if Pepper could get in and out, then evil could get in and out. Pepper ignored this nonsense talk.

Hermione looked pretty upset with Pepper for disappearing as she did. "It's a good thing you told Harry where you were going," she chastised as Pepper sat down next to her. "Otherwise, there could have been serious consequences."

"Didn't you want to know if they were okay?" Pepper countered.

"Yes, Pepper, of course I did, but I just want to make sure that you're safe."

There was a knock on the office door, and one of the Aurors crossed to the door in two strides and yanked it open. There stood Chris of the future. "I need to talk to Pepper," he said. It wasn't a request, it was an order.

Impatient to speak with him, Pepper rose hastily and hurried out the door. Chris shut the door behind them and led Pepper down the spiral staircase. She spun around to face him as soon as her feet left the stairs and were planted in the deserted hallway. "Can you please inform me of what just happened and why I had to be locked in that tower surrounded by overprotective Aurors?" she demanded.

"Against my better judgment, and at risk of changing the future—"

"I thought you came here to change the future," Pepper cut in, a sharp edge to her voice.

Chris ignored her and continued. "I think I should tell you what happens to you in the future, since they seem to be keeping you out of the loop at this point and I know the demons are going to get you eventually."

"_What?_" Pepper demanded. "Are you saying the demons are going to, what, kidnap me, maim me, _kill_ me?"

"Pepper, in my future, you don't exist."

Pepper felt as if the breath had been knocked out of her. She clutched her chest, doubled up. "I get murdered, then," she gasped.

"You should know so that you can look out for yourself. I don't know how it happened, so don't even ask. It happened before I could remember it."

"Chris…Chris, you've gotta tell me more than that," Pepper said, her voice carrying a hint of hysteria. "I need a little more to go on."

"I can't tell you anything else," Chris said plainly. Pepper couldn't think of one time that she had heard emotion in Chris's voice. He was always matter-of-fact, even when he was talking about lives. "I've got to go talk to the sisters so we can figure out what to do. You need to start watching your own back, Pepper," he said. "I'll be here when I can be, but you know that saving Wyatt is my main goal."

He orbed away before Pepper could protest at the indignity of his last statement. He knew she was going to die, and yet, he wouldn't protect her. What happened to Wyatt could not be worse than Pepper's death, could it?

She hated when all of this drama came at once. Why wasn't all of this nonsense over? Voldemort was dead, right, so all of the major threats should have been eradicated. Cole, the Triad, and the Source were eliminated, too. Who in the hell could be sending demons after a teenage witch and her baby cousin?

Regaining her breath and her thoughts, Pepper stood erect, straightened her school uniform, and made her way back up to the Headmaster's office, where everyone was still waiting for her. She had absolutely no desire to relay to the Aurors what Chris had just revealed to her. She regarded her imminent death as rather private information. As much as the Aurors wanted to help, Pepper knew they couldn't do as much as they thought they could.

"What did he say?" an Auror demanded of her.

Anxiety was gnawing at Pepper, preventing her from sitting down, or even standing still for that matter. She wondered if lying was the best way to go in this situation. "He said that the demons are going to keep trying to attack me," she decided on saying. It was not a lie; it just wasn't the complete truth. There was a tremor in her voice when she spoke, she noticed. This was not a good thing. All she wanted at the moment was to get out of that room. "Can I go now?" she asked.

The consensus from the adults was affirmative. Pepper and her friends were excused. She was the first one out the door, hurrying down the stairs and towards the Heads' common room. The hasty footsteps behind her told her that her friends were not far behind.

What she really wanted was to head straight to Hermione's bedroom, lock herself in, and process all of this information. She knew, however, that no one would allow her to do so. Thus, she flopped across the length of the sofa, burying her face in one of the decorative pillows.

The objective of demons was to, obviously, kill who they were attacking, but Pepper never thought it would actually happen. If Chris was about Wyatt's age when he decided to return to the present, then it would be about twenty years in the future. That would put Pepper around forty. Chris did say that Pepper's…death…occurred before he could remember, though. This meant that he would have to be really young, which meant that Wyatt would have to be young, which would mean that Pepper had three years or less to live.

Her heart dropped into the pit of her stomach. She felt sick. Why didn't Chris know how she died? When she died? Who killed her?

Footsteps were filling the room, but Pepper still hid her face. Someone lifted her legs up and sat down, then put her legs on their lap. She assumed it was Blaise, but did not lift her head to check. The room was silent after everyone settled into various seats around the room. Pepper wondered if all of them were there; sometimes Ron and Draco did not want to stick around to deal with her drama.

After a while, Hermione said, "Pepper, we know Chris told you something else." Her voice was tender, careful. She had sensed the tremor in her sister's voice.

"According to Chris, I get killed in the near future," she told the pillow.

There was a collective sharp intake of breath. Pepper still did not raise her head; she was sure the room would spin if she cared to look. She was sure the nausea already in her stomach would increase if she cared to sit up. She was sure the world would completely crack and she would fall into its bowels.

"Did he say _how_ you get killed?" Hermione asked. She was whispering, nearly gasping.

"He wouldn't tell me anything else," Pepper replied. "I have three years or less to live, apparently. The demons that keep coming will eventually get me."

No one spoke for a while, and then the sound of footsteps resumed. Pepper was slightly puzzled: was everyone leaving? But the person she assumed was Blaise did not move from the sofa. Once the room was silent, the person on the sofa with her legs on their lap put their hands on her calves. Yes, those were Blaise's hands. He was grasping her legs with some force, letting her know that his hands were there.

"Black," he said. His voice was deeper than it usually was. "Pepper," he then corrected, using the name to prove to her that this was serious business he was about to discuss. "I will not let anything happen to you. Ever."

Despite all of the threatening, confusing things that were going on around Pepper, these words filled her with warmth. Blaise would never be one to say outright that he cared, but these words, Pepper knew, were the equivalent. She shifted, dislodging her legs from his hands, and sat up. Leaning up against him, she buried her face in his neck. He wrapped his arms around her.

"Thank you," she said. She did not want the tears to come, but they were threatening to, building hotly behind her eyes and pressing on them. The shock was wearing off, so now the thoughts of death were invading her mind. A list of the things, of the people, she would be leaving behind. Her fear of dying was invading the recesses of her brain. "I'm scared," she told Blaise. Her voice was shaking again and his arms tightened around her.

"You'll defeat whoever is after you and your cousin, Black, and you'll both live the way you're supposed to," he assured her.

It was difficult to put her feelings for Blaise into words. They were certainly growing feelings, and they were stronger than Pepper had ever experienced for a male. He was extremely devoted to her; he was always by her side beyond what she expected. By now, she had expected him to dump her. She would certainly have ditched someone with as much baggage as she had herself. Blaise kept putting himself in harm's way, what with all of the demons after her, and he wasn't even getting any sex for it in return. He obviously cared a great deal for her, though he would not admit it. Pepper's feelings for him were morphing into something entirely unpredictable, and she did not want that capriciousness to factor in to her already rocky situation with the demons.


	17. Chapter Seventeen: Encountering Enemies

Author's Note: Thank you for sticking with me, even though this story has taken forever

**Author's Note: **Thank you for sticking with me, even though this story has taken forever! I appreciate reviews!

**Chapter Seventeen**

Six days later, Candie Marie decided it would be a fantastic day to harass Pepper Halliwell-Black, who was burying herself in books, trying to find out who could be trying to kill her. Pepper had not showered in three days, and had been eating very little. The school library, surprisingly, had quite a few volumes on demons of Pepper's world, and she had been going through them, eliminating the ones she knew were vanquished and dog-earing the pages of interest. She was sure she looked atrocious— she had not looked in a mirror in days—but this was more important than anything at the moment.

Candie Marie did not know this, and decided to point out Pepper's many appearance faults while they were all in the library. Pepper had a table to herself for the multitude of books spread around her. There was a quill stuck in the messy bun in her hair, and there was a quill scribbling furiously in her hand.

Her friends had been taking turns keeping watch over her, making sure at least one of them was with her at all times, for safety reasons. The shields around Hogwarts seemed to be keeping the demons out pretty well, but they did not want something to slip through and get Pepper alone.

"Well it's _so_ nice of you to come share our dirty self with the rest of the student body," Candie was saying from her seat next to Harry. Pepper was only half listening; she was more focused on her books than on Harry's annoying girlfriend.

The thing that annoyed Pepper the most about these ridiculous comments Candie always threw at her was the fact that Harry never did anything about it. He never defended Pepper or even told Candie to stop insulting his friend. He was too enamored with Candie to do anything that would upset her. Annoyingly, Harry was on Pepper watching duty, so he and his girlfriend were the only two people with her.

Pepper tried to block out the noise that insufferable girl was making, but her comments were increasing in number and volume. Blaise was not there to defend his girlfriend, either; he was currently at Quidditch practice. Pepper was too exhausted to defend herself. Sleep had been evading her, and when she did get a chance to close her eyes, nightmares ensued.

"If you're going to decide not to shower, at least warn me so I can make plans not to be around you. I know you're doing so poorly in your classes that you have no time for anything else but studying, but you could at least do everyone the courtesy of studying in your own dorm."

Pepper looked up from her books, glaring at Candie. She was sitting very close to Harry, though his head was buried in his schoolbooks. "Could you please shut up?" she asked.

Candie raised a perfectly shaped eyebrow at Pepper. "Oh I'm sorry," she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm, "was I offending you?"

Pepper wanted to fight her with every fiber of her being. Her temper was short because of the circumstances she was currently dealing with, and she began to worry that clones could begin to appear.

"Harry, it's too gross over here, I can't get any work done," she said sweetly to her boyfriend. "Can we leave?"

Harry looked up then. He knew he was on Pepper-watch. "No, we can't," he said.

Candie looked indignant. "Well why not?"

Pepper didn't really want Candie to know everything about her life, but she always seemed to because Harry just could not find it in his heart to lie to her. "Because I have to stay with Pepper," he replied.

Pepper was looking at Harry while Candie stared at Pepper. "Why? She's disgusting."

"Because she's in danger and needs to be with someone at all times," Harry explained.

Candie made a disgusted face. "We're _babysitting_?"

Pepper couldn't believe Harry wasn't saying anything about this. He apparently just wanted to avoid it; he mumbled something about getting another book and vacated the table.

"Candie, no one is holding you hostage here," Pepper said. "You can go wherever you damn well please," Pepper told her.

"And leave Harry all alone to babysit you? That's not happening," the girl replied.

Pepper rolled her eyes. "In fact, I'd prefer it if you got the hell away from me."

Candie glared at her. "You don't want to mess with me, Halliwell. If we fight, I'm going to win," she threatened.

Pepper pushed her chair back, the legs scraping on the stone floor as she stood. She leaned over the table, trying to appear menacing and intimidating to Candie, who was physically stronger than she was. If it was a physical fight, then yes, Candie would definitely kick Pepper's a. Pepper, however, being the most powerful witch in the world, would win in a magic fight. She hoped, if they did come to blows it would be with their powers. "Stop threatening me, Lowell," she warned. "I'm not in the mood."

"Harry should be spending his time with me, not with you," Candie growled, standing up herself and leaning over the table too, her face dangerously close to Pepper's.

So that was what this nonsense was all about. She was just jealous that Harry was spending too much time with his ex-girlfriend and soul mate. Pepper rolled her eyes.

"You're asking for a fight," Candie told her.

Pepper was too tired for this. There were numerous times when she would have loved to ruin Candie's pretty face, but right now she wanted to focus on the impending doom before her. "We can't fight in the library," Pepper told her. "But I'll meet you anywhere else. You may just want to give fighting me some thought before you decide to do it." She swept her books into her schoolbag and slung it over her shoulder, heading out of the library. She needed some place where she could actually get some work done. No one would be in the Heads' rooms, she knew, so she headed there. Her bag was extremely heavy, and it kept sliding off of her shoulder.

At one of these instances, as she was picking the heavy bag from the floor, a raucous group of students approached her from the other end of the hallway. Pepper was bent down, trying to maneuver the bag over her head so that it would stay on more easily. So, she did not see who was advancing towards her until she heard her name.

"Hey, Pepper!"

She looked up to see Trent with a group of his male Ravenclaw friends casually strolling her way. Her heart stopped for a second. This was not going to be good. Why was she running into her least favorite people today?

She stood up tall as the group reached her, cornering her at the end of the corridor. "What do you want, Trent? I thought you would have realized that you need to stay away from me after my friends beat you to a bloody pulp," she said angrily.

Trent just laughed easily at her. "Yes, it does seem that your boyfriend took you back despite the fact that you were cheating on him."

Pepper felt her cheeks grow hot with anger. "I don't appreciate you spreading rumors about me."

"I spread no rumors," Trent said innocently.

She was trapped; his friends had completely blocked her into the corner. She did not want to resort to using her powers on them. Even if she did freeze them, though, she wasn't sure if she was strong enough to move them out of her way.

"So have you thought any more about our relationship, Pepper?" he asked her. The creepy factor was definitely increasing.

"I would appreciate it if you stopped leaving daisies and creepy notes for me," she said. She wasn't sure what his cronies knew of the situation; if she had only heard his side of the story, she was going to remedy that. There was no way they could support him after they knew how he had been stalking her.

"Pepper, you know we're meant to be together. You can't say no to me," he was continuing, ignoring her entirely.

Pepper laughed aloud. She knew she had to be brave in this situation, even if seven rather large male Ravenclaws were currently surrounding her. She was more powerful. If she showed her fear, Trent would no doubt take advantage of it. "I'm saying it now: no. No, no, no, no, no." She pulled out her wand, took two steps forward, and shoved it in his face. "Stay the fuck away from me, Trent," she growled.

"Don't threaten someone when you can't back it up," said a voice from behind her. All of a sudden, the circle of boys closed in around her and a wand was stuck in her back. What was this? Was Trent the Draco Malfoy of sixth year Ravenclaws; why were they all doing his bidding?

"You honestly think I can't back it up?" Pepper said, trying to sound braver than she felt. Her bag was weighing her down considerably, so there was no way she could make a break for it.

"Put down your wand," the boy behind her ordered.

The only choice now was to freeze them and try to make her way from the tight circle around her. She lowered her wand and put it back in her pocket.

"Pepper, I just want to talk to you," said Trent, and his voice was almost pleading. "Please, just come with me and talk to me. I don't want to hurt you, I just want to talk."

"You have got to be kidding me," Pepper said. "I am going no where with you." She brought her hands up in front of her chest to freeze him, but before she could, he grabbed her wrists. At that point, all she could do was deflect him because he was limiting her movement. Thus, that was what she did. She pushed her hands forward as much as she could under the circumstances. Unfortunately, he still had a hold on her, and she flew backwards as he did. Landing on top of him, she didn't waste time on scrambling to extract herself from his grip and stand. It was lucky her book-filled schoolbag had swung around to hit him, knocking the wind out of him, or she would have never been able to stand. Before his cronies could react, Pepper froze them. She kicked Trent swiftly in the side before fleeing.

As she hurried towards the Heads' common room, she wondered briefly why Harry had not come to look for her once she had left the library. After all, it was his turn to keep an eye on her.

There was no one in the common room when she arrived. She forced herself to focus on demon hunting once again, not wanting to think of what had just gone on in the corridor.

The exhaustion must have caught up with her, because the next thing she knew, she was roused from sleep by the people coming through the portrait hole. She was curled up in the overstuffed armchair, books lying open around her. Through sleep-hazed eyes, she watched Hermione, Draco, and Blaise come into the room. They were talking about something, but stopped their conversation when Hermione saw Pepper. "Pepper!" she said, surprised.

Pepper wasn't moving from her curled-up position. She was still half asleep and groggy.

"Are you alone?" Hermione asked, setting her school bag down next to the sofa. "I thought Harry was supposed to be with you until three."

Pepper nodded vaguely, too tired to voice an answer. Her eyelids were fluttering closed again. She was trying to ignore the pain that came from sleeping in such an awkward position. "Blaise, why don't you take her up to my room, it looks like she needs some rest," Hermione said fondly, looking at her sister with unease. She knew how hard Pepper had been working the past few days and how worried she was about dying. Hermione was worried, too. She was doing all she could to protect Pepper.

Blaise strode over to Pepper and picked her up. She snuggled up to his warm body. He took her into Hermione's room and pulled back the covers, placing Pepper under the bedspread. He kissed the top of her head before turning to leave the room.

"Wait," Pepper called to him meekly. He turned back to the bed, his hand on the doorknob. "Please stay."

Slightly amused, Blaise kicked off his shoes before climbing into Hermione's bed with Pepper. "Why do you want me to stay?" he asked as he wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her close.

"Mmm," she said in reply, too tired to form coherent sentences. She cuddled up against him. She entwined her fingers in his. "Nap with me," she murmured. Moments later, she was breathing steadily in Blaise's arms. He was glad she was finally getting some sleep. The past few days of sleeplessness had worried him, and he knew that he could do nothing about it. As much as he tried to reassure her, she still worried about her impeding doom.

Hermione slept on the sofa that night.

Pepper woke up at four a.m. the next morning. The room was pitch black and Blaise had his arm wrapped tightly around her. She needed to get more research done. She tried to sneak out from under the muscled arm across her, but when she lifted it up, it wound more tightly around her. "Get more sleep," Blaise mumbled.

Pepper smiled. It was nice to finally be getting some nightmare free sleep. She was surprised she was having no nightmares because of what transpired with Trent the previous afternoon, but at least she now knew she could deal with him. She closed her eyes again and settled into Blaise's embrace. She could definitely get used to sleeping next to him.


	18. Chapter Eighteen: Admission

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**Author's Note:** I'm not exactly sure how many readers I have at this point, but those that I have; thanks for sticking with me!

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**Chapter Eighteen**

Pepper took a shower the next morning when she awoke at seven. It was Sunday, so she allowed Blaise to sleep longer. She slipped carefully out from under his protective arm and into Hermione's bathroom. She figured it was probably time to shampoo her hair, seeing as she had not done it in days.

After she was good and clean she threw on her bathrobe and headed down to the common room, drying her hair with a towel. Hermione was stretched out on the sofa. Pepper felt badly that she had kicked Hermione out of her own bed.

Pepper's books were still littered around the armchair, so she set to work once again on discovering who was trying to turn Wyatt evil and kill her. Nearly all of the demons described in the tomes of the Hogwarts library were eliminated as possibilities. Her aunts had vanquished most of them, and the others were too lower-level to be able to do any real damage. Cole was still, of course, a possibility, but he was a possibility Pepper did not really want to entertain. They _thought_ that he had been vanquished, but you never really knew with Cole.

She began to lose track of time, but everyone was still asleep, so it could not have been that late. All of a sudden, blue light appeared in front of her eyes and her Aunt Phoebe and Aunt Paige appeared in front of her. Surprised, she said, "What are you two doing here?"

"We have some news," said Phoebe. Pepper put a finger to her lips to tell her aunt to be quiet. She motioned to the sleeping Hermione.

"What news?" Pepper asked in a whisper.

"Chris is Piper's son," Paige said.

Pepper's jaw dropped in alarm. "That's impossible," she said. "When will he be born? Didn't your last letter tell me that Uncle Leo and Aunt Piper on the outs at the moment?"

"Well actually," Paige began.

"They conceived Chris the other night," Phoebe finished for her bluntly.

Pepper opened her mouth to respond, but words failed her. She closed and opened it numerous times, looking like a fish. "Oh," she finally managed to splutter. That meant that she really, literally had three years or less to live. "Oh," she said again. "Is Chris still here?" she wondered. "Because now that he's…a fetus, can he exist in two places at once?"

"Yes, he's still here," said Phoebe. "We think that he'll be here until he takes out the threat to Wyatt."

"There's a threat to me, too," Pepper said, slightly defensive. "Chris also let me know a little secret the other day. I'm going to die before he's old enough to remember it."

Paige and Phoebe were surprised. "You don't exist in his future?" asked Phoebe.

Pepper shook her head. "I've been trying to find out who does it for the past three days."

"Do you think it's the same thing that turns Wyatt evil?"

"I don't know. My efforts have mainly been fruitless. I've just determined who it _isn't_, and I'm sure it will match up with your research."

"Pepper, I don't want you to worry about this too much," said Phoebe. "We've got it covered, and our resources greatly outweigh yours. You've got big important tests coming up soon anyhow, and you can't forget about them."

Like Hermione would ever let Pepper forget about N.E.W.T.s. "None of what you say will deter me from trying to determine who's going to kill me."

"I know, Pep, but you need to focus on your studies."

Paige looked over at Hermione again, question dawning on her face. "Hold on a minute; why is Hermione sleeping on the couch?"

Pepper was hoping that they wouldn't notice. "Er…I was sleeping in her bed," she offered.

"I thought you always slept in Hermione's bed."

Yes, this was true. Pepper knew she was going to offer the explanation that Blaise was in the bed with her, and she knew that her aunts were going to take it in a completely wrong way. "Er…"

Naturally, Blaise chose this exact moment to head down the staircase from Hermione's room, shirtless. "There you are; when I woke up, you were gone," he said to Pepper. Then he saw her aunts. Being the suave gentleman he was, he was nonplussed. He held his hand out for her aunts to shake. "I'm Blaise Zabini," he introduced. The last time he had met them was when they returned from the future and Mystic was in the process of wooing him. Even then, there had been no formal introduction.

Phoebe's eyebrows had nearly disappeared into her fringe. "Phoebe Halliwell," she introduced, shaking Blaise's hand somewhat reluctantly.

"Paige Matthews," Paige said, shaking his hand and smirking.

Pepper's face was red. "It's not what you think," she insisted. She tried to ignore that bare chest of Blaise's she loved so much.

"So you're the one dating our niece," said Phoebe.

"And it looks like you're doing quite a bit of _dating_," Paige mumbled. Pepper's cheeks flamed. Phoebe couldn't stop looking from Pepper's robed form to Blaise's shirtless one.

"We were sleeping completely clothed," Pepper assured them. "I hadn't slept in days so I fell asleep in this chair and Blaise carried me up to Hermione's bed and we fell asleep," she explained hurriedly. "See, it's nothing?" She didn't understand how Blaise could look so unfazed. "Was there anything else you guys came to tell me?"

"No, that was it," Phoebe said, though she wouldn't look at Pepper. Her eyes were still on Blaise. He was just standing there, his face unreadable. Eventually, her eyes left him and she caught Pepper's. "Be careful, Pepper. Keep writing." Pepper knew she was talking about Blaise as well as the demons. They orbed away.

"Your timing is impeccable," Pepper told Blaise sarcastically. "Now they think we're having sex."

"We could be having sex," Blaise said, looking down at her sitting in the arm chair.

Pepper stood and pulled her robe more tightly around her. "Just because you're standing there all shirtless and sexy does not mean you can convince me to have sex with you," she said lowly. She did not want Hermione to wake up; she was amazed her sister hadn't stirred already.

In one swift step he had closed the gap between him and pressed his mouth to hers. No matter how many times they kissed, he always had the same effect on Pepper. She essentially melted in his arms merely from snogging him. Her heart began to beat faster when she felt his bare chest against the revealed skin between the halves of her robe. "Blaise," she breathed as his lips moved to her neck and the sensitive spot behind her earlobe.

He reattached his lips to hers and began walking backwards, up the stairs, and back to Hermione's room, never breaking the kiss with Pepper. Her fingers found their way into his hair as he spun them around so he could kick the bedroom door closed. Pepper found the back of her legs hitting the edge of the bed, and he hoisted her up so she was lying on it. Peppper's thoughts were becoming muddled, her judgment hazy as his kisses trailed down her collarbone. She was innately aware of his intentions, and she was very aware that if he removed her bathrobe he would get what he wanted. She tried to gather her thoughts enough to stop this right here.

"Blaise," she said in an attempt at forcefulness. His hands were currently on her thighs and working their way up. "Blaise," she said again, but this time it was more of a moan. She said his name a third time and tried to twist herself away from him. He stopped kissing her. He removed his hands from her thighs and covered her body with his, putting his face inches above hers. He looked smug, propping himself up on his elbows to hover above her.

"Yes?" he said quietly.

"We should stop," she told him, equally as quiet. Her eyes and mind were clouded with want.

"Why?" he wondered. His eyes were boring into hers, making it even harder for Pepper to remember her reasoning. His wonderful cinnamony scent was overwhelming.

"Her-Hermione's going to want to come into her room eventually," she said with difficulty.

Blaise was amused by this reasoning. "That's no reason; Granger can deal with it."

"I have a lot of work to get done," she tried.

"You need some stress release," he countered. "Why don't you want to have sex with me? You did it before."

Pepper avoided his eye. The truthful answer to this question was slightly embarrassing.

"Tell me," Blaise said, his hushed voice more serious now.

"I'm jealous of the way Hermione lost her virginity," she admitted. She still wouldn't look at him.

"Black, you've already lost your virginity," Blaise pointed out.

"I know…" Pepper said. She was aware that her reasoning did not exactly make sense. "I just sort of feel like I didn't because it wasn't my body."

"So, what, you want to wait?" he asked her. It sounded like he was getting kind of angry.

"I…I don't know," she said, lamely. All of the fire that had pooled in her stomach had dissipated by now. She was too concerned with his growing anger, and she had no idea what to do about it. She was groping for excuses. "I guess I just don't want to get carried away when I'm so confused about everything."

"Confused about what?" Blaise demanded. The anger was apparent on his face now. His eyes held annoyance, his mouth held in a tight line.

"This whole death thing," she said.

She could tell he was fighting the urge to roll his eyes. He was tired of her using this as an excuse for everything. He got off of her and made for the door. Tears were stinging at Pepper's eyes now. She didn't want him to be mad at her, but she didn't know what to say to make the situation better. "Listen, Blaise," she pleaded, sitting up. "I...I…"

He turned around and stood with his back to the door, his arms crossed across his bare chest. "You what, Black? What are you so confused about? I'm fucking sick of you using this death scare as an excuse when everyone's assured you that you won't get hurt! Stop wallowing in self pity! WHAT IS SO CONFUSING!"

The tears welled over and began to stream down her face. Pepper, still on the bed, got on her hands and knees. "I LOVE YOU!" she shouted, her voice cracking. As soon as the words escaped her lips, she began to sob. She had been so scared to admit it, but she had to tell Blaise the truth. She covered her face with her hands, sobbing into them. She wasn't entirely sure why she was crying; she was overwhelmed with emotion.

Blaise was speechless.

His arms dropped from their crossed position. Pepper wasn't watching the myriad of emotions that were crossing his face in quick succession. She was too worried of what his response to her outburst would be. She was trying to decide whether to stay where she was or to flee from the room. Blaise wasn't saying anything. She listened for a moment for a word from him. All she heard was the heavy wooden bedroom door as he opened it, slipped out, and closed it behind him.

Pepper looked up, not believing he would just walk out on her without saying anything. He wasn't there. A fresh wave of sobs overtook her. She had just offered Blaise her heart and he handed it back to her in pieces. Was this the end of their relationship?

She had no idea how long she sat there crying, but it was long enough for Hermione to wake up and enter her room, desiring the toilet and a change of clothing. "Pepper," she said, concerned, when she saw her best friend curled into a ball, tears falling ferociously down her face. "What happened?"

"Blaise," Pepper told her. She suddenly got her wits about her. "I need to do more research. I have so much work to do." She wiped furiously at her tears and crawled off the bed. "Sorry for making you sleep on the sofa last night."

"No problem," Hermione said cautiously. She had no idea what was going on, but she felt that she had missed something big.

Pepper returned to her books. She couldn't think about Blaise at the moment. She needed to put all her energy into her studying. She needed to eliminate threats and discover her murderer. She needed to avoid Trent to the best of her ability. She needed to avoid Candie in order to avoid a fight. Focusing on Wyatt was an attractive alternative, but she knew that thoughts about Blaise were very sneaky and would not leave her for a long time. If she had been thinking about him constantly for months, why would anything change now, even if he had blatantly rejected her love?


	19. Chapter Nineteen: Sensitive

**Author's Note: **This chapter is the reason this story is rated M. It doesn't get too too graphic, but there's some heavier swearing and some sexual situations.

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**Chapter Nineteen**

At this point, Pepper didn't think it was a demon that altered the future. It had to be a warlock: something who looked human and who could assimilate into society. This scheme seemed to be too complicated for any demon, even an upper level one, to pull off. She had been working completely independent from her aunts, and she hadn't seen Chris for days. Thus, she had no idea how their search was going. They were all keeping her completely out of the loop. She knew they didn't want to worry her and didn't want to shoulder her with the responsibility of demon-hunting.

The time she didn't spend in class was spent in Hermione's room. The only time she saw Blaise was in the classes she had with him, and he completely avoided her. He must have avoided the Heads' rooms for a week as well, because Pepper did not see him there at all. She was avoiding thinking about him, though she yearned for his voice, his touch, his presence, with every fiber of her being.

Hermione didn't confront her about the situation, though she had gathered it was about Blaise, seeing as he hadn't been around since Sunday. This situation was similar to the one that happened when Pepper caught Raphael cheating on her over the holiday break. Still, for the moment, at least, Pepper seemed to be stable, and Hermione did not want to break the stability while she was looking for who was after her. She had been watching over Pepper as much as possible, since Harry had failed the last time and Pepper had informed her about the run-in with Trent that had resulted from that.

Saturday was Hogsmeade. Pepper did not want to go due to all of schoolwork that had been piling up while she was working on finding her killer. Hermione thought that she needed a break. She enlisted the help of Ginny, since Ginny had been the one to get Pepper to go to the party when Raphael broke her heart.

"I have too much work to do," Pepper said, shaking her head. She was stationed at Hermione's desk, bent over open volumes, quill in hand. Again, she had neglected to sleep or shower in days. After her aunts' visit, the pressing time had become more real to her. She could die tomorrow, for all she knew. And with Piper pregnant with Chris now, who knew how much longer he would be around to change the future himself?

"Pepper, you're just running on need, on adrenaline," pressed Hermione. "Hogsmeade is only the afternoon. After that you can go back to work."

"You need a break," Ginny insisted. "You'll go mental otherwise."

Pepper shut her book, rubbing at her eyes. "Fine, but just for the afternoon," she conceded.

"Good, now go shower," Ginny ordered.

Pepper did as she ordered, heading to Hermione's bathroom.

"Has she told you want happened?" Ginny asked Hermione once Pepper had closed the door to the loo.

Hermione shook her head. "I'm afraid to ask in case she breaks down. Right now, I think she just needs to focus on these demons to keep her going."

They were speaking lowly. "She hasn't left your room in the last week, has she?"

"She's been going to class, but that's it," Hermione replied. "I've been bringing food up to her." Hermione ran a hand through her unruly hair.

"She's stressing you out, isn't she?" Ginny asked.

Hermione nodded reluctantly. "I haven't been able to focus on my N.E.W.T.s work or see Ron or anything this week because I'm too worried about her. She needs someone with her at all times. Harry's been too busy with Candie…" Hermione rolled her eyes. She felt much the same way about Candie that Pepper did. "The last time he had to look after her, Candie and Pepper had a row and nearly fought. Ron sometimes does it, but it's just the two of us."

"What about Draco?" Ginny was pulling out clothes suitable for Hogsmeade out of the wardrobe and laying them out on the bed for Pepper.

"Pepper won't go in his room anymore."

"Ah, yes. Blaise."

"Actually, I don't think Blaise has even been up there lately," said Hermione. "He's been avoiding her like the plague."

"I can help," Ginny offered. "I'll hang out with her at Hogsmeade today, and you can spend some time with my brother."

The books had done a pretty good job of keeping Pepper's mind off of Blaise, but now that they were gone, her thoughts had ample time to wander. She hadn't cried since he walked out after she admitted her feelings, but, as she and Ginny walked down the High Street of Hogsmeade arm in arm, the tears were threatening to come. She didn't want to think about Blaise, but it seemed to be unavoidable.

Ginny took her into Honeydukes. "Ginny, don't you have Liam to hang out with?" Pepper asked despondently.

"No, I have you to hang out with," Ginny said matter-of-factly, grinning at Pepper and picking up a box of Ice Mice from a shelf. "And I plan to have fun with you today."

As usual, they eventually ended up in the Three Broomsticks. Harry and Candie were sitting at a table with open seats. Pepper did not really want to go sit with them, but that was where Ginny gravitated. "Hullo!" Ginny greeted them cheerfully.

Candie sort of grimaced at Pepper in greeting, but flashed Ginny a smile.

"Pepper!" said Harry in surprise. "It's nice to see you out and about."

"Yeah, Ginny sort of forced me," Pepper said.

"Well how _nice_," Candie said, sarcasm oozing from her words. "At least you showered before going out in public this time."

"Yes, I did it just for you," Pepper replied, equally as sarcastic. This was just what she needed.

"Guys, come on," Ginny said, stepping in before the situation got out of hand. "Can we just have some butterbeer and be civil?"

"I'll order it," Harry said, wanting to avoid the situation, as usual. He left the table to go up to the bar.

"Now why is it that every time you appear, Harry leaves?" Candie asked scathingly. "Get the picture, Halliwell: Harry wants nothing to do with you."

"Maybe he leaves because he doesn't want you to see how much better he likes me," Pepper countered. She was not just going to lay back and let Candie Marie Lowell walk all over her. This girl was as bad as Draco used to be.

Candie looked amused. "In your dreams," she chuckled.

"Guys," Ginny said again. They ignored her.

"I seem to recall a time when Harry was dating me."

Now Candie was glaring at her. "But he's not anymore, is he? Why is that? Oh, because no one likes you, Halliwell."

"Wow, that was a _scathing_ response," said Pepper, rolling her eyes. She had to extract herself from this situation before it got out of hand. "I'm bored with you, Lowell." She got up from the table, leaving the pub.

But Candie was following her. "This is _not_ over!" she called to Pepper. Pepper whirled around to face her. "You need to get it through your thick skull that you need to stay away from my boyfriend."

"Where the hell do you get the idea that I'm going to listen to you?" Pepper said. Their voices were escalating.

"I'm fucking sick of your shit, Halliwell. Why don't you get that Harry doesn't want to spend time with you? _No one_ wants you!"

"And where would you get an idea like that?"

"Do you _see_ a boyfriend around?" Candie asked forcefully. She looked around exaggeratedly, so she didn't see the fist flying at her face.

The problem with Blaise was too new for Pepper to be passive about comments such as the one Candie had just made. She snapped, and got great satisfaction from Candie's head snapping back from the force of Pepper's fist on her face. Candie recovered quickly. Livid, she grabbed the first thing she could: Pepper's hair.

And so the fight began. Pepper was at a disadvantage because they were fighting physically and Candie was stronger than her. Candie was throwing blows to her stomach, and Pepper was having trouble breathing. She was merely throwing her arms around, trying to reach anything and everything she could. She was scratching, punching, grabbing, but it wasn't doing much good. She had to do something to defend herself better. So, she deflected Candie the next time the girl launched herself at Pepper.

Candie fell backwards, much like Trent had days ago. Pepper jumped on top of her with new-found energy. All of her pent up anger and frustration was taken out on Candie's face.

Suddenly, Pepper was being lifted off of Candie. Someone was gripping her forearms tightly, holding her back. She was still flailing to get at her opponent, but it was to no avail. Harry had his arms around Candie's waist to restrain her. She was fighting against her restraints, attempting to get at Pepper. A small group of people had gathered around the fight. Pepper had no idea who was holding her back, and she didn't really care at the moment. She was still full of rage and wanted to beat the hell out of Candie Marie.

"What the hell are you two doing!" Harry yelled, struggling to keep Candie from breaking free.

"Ask this bitch!" Candie shouted. "She punched me!" Pepper was glad to see that her hair was completely disheveled and a bruise was forming on her cheekbone.

Now Harry was glaring at Pepper too. Did he not just notice that Candie called her a bitch? Apparently, he didn't care.

"Get her the fuck out of here before I fucking kill her!" Candie threatened, trying to come at Pepper with renewed vigor.

Then, there was a voice in Pepper's ear: "As much as I'd like to see you beat the shit out of her, Black, I think it's time to go."

Pepper's heart stopped. Blaise scooped her up, one arm under her back and one under her legs, and headed back towards the castle. As he carried her, Pepper just stared at him, gaping stupidly. Blaise was carrying her. Blaise. He was here, touching her, holding her, saving her from being ripped to shreds by Harry's raging girlfriend.

"I would appreciate it if you stopped staring at me," he said, mirth in his voice.

Then Pepper remembered she should be mad at him. "What the fuck're you doing here," she demanded.

"Stopping you from getting beaten to a bloody pulp."

"No!" she cried. "Put me down!" They were nearly at the castle, and he ignored her request. "Put me down!" she repeated. He looked down at her with that damnable amused smirk on his stupid face. Then, he put her down. "You have no right to be rushing in to save me like that!" She attempted to run away, but she was in too much pain. She had not realized just how much impact Candie's punches had made. She stumbled, nearly falling.

Blaise, naturally, caught her. "You would have rather me just stood by while you got your arse kicked?"

"No I—argh! Just get off of me!" Pepper exclaimed, trying to resist his charm and that scent of him she loved so much. She wriggled out of his grasp and limped towards the castle. "I just want you to leave me alone!"

"Funny, that's not what I gathered from what you said to me the other night."

Her cheeks burned. How could he throw something as personal as a confession of love back in her face? There were those tears again, pricking at her eyes. She tried to ignore him, and kept walking. He couldn't just avoid her for a week and then take her in his arms with his humor and sarcasm and…Pepper wanted to hex him and hug him all at the same time.

He seemed to have left. She was making her way painfully up the front stairs, then through the Entrance Hall, and up to the Heads' portrait. She didn't look back; she was half hoping he was following her and half hoping he had left her alone, just as she'd asked. She practically barked the password at the portrait and stepped into the common room.

She was met with an unwelcome sight. Just like a few months ago, there was a table for two set up before the fireplace, romantic lighting in place. Pepper groaned. All she wanted to do was hit the books again, but Hermione and Ron were getting busy in the room where all of her research was.

Then she noticed that there were no clothes littering the floor, the champagne on the table had not been touched, and the flatware was unused. Yet there was no Ron waiting for Hermione.

"You told me you were jealous of Hermione," said a voice suddenly. Pepper jumped. Blaise had come up beside her.

"Fuck Blaise," she swore, "how'd you follow me up here so silently?" Then what he just said set in. "Wait, this is for me?" She looked at him questioningly.

He wasn't looking at her. She stared at his profile in the low lighting, wanting an answer out of him. This didn't make any sense. If he had set this up for her after walking out on her for refusing to have sex with him, then this was just him trying to get lucky with the ploy Ron used. "You can't just avoid me for a week and then want to sleep with me. What kind of girl do you think—"

She was silenced by him grabbing her face and pressing his lips to hers. Pepper instantly melted as his touch. Her hands made their way to his hair against her will. His hands were on either side of her face, holding it firmly until he had kissed her as much as he pleased. When he broke the kiss Pepper was already feeling lightheaded. "What are you doing?" she asked breathlessly.

He rested his forehead against hers in a rather un-Blaise-like gesture of intimacy. "Can you just enjoy the damn nice gesture?" he asked huskily.

"You've been avoiding me for a week," she said again.

"I've been thinking a lot about what you said."

"What part of what I said?" They were speaking in near whispers, foreheads still pressed together, Pepper's hair making a sort of curtain around their close faces as she leaned forward.

"The part before I left."

"You mean where you left me sobbing and humiliated?"

He kissed her softly. Pepper was slightly confused. This was completely against Blaise's normal personality. He was never this soft and sweet. Gone was his cocky, Slytherin attitude. She had never witnessed this side of him before. "You scare the hell out of me, Black," he admitted.

He didn't continue, but she used his tactic and stayed silent, hoping he would share more.

"I didn't mean to hurt you. I just didn't know what to do when you said that. I couldn't face the truth."

"Why didn't you say _anything_? Blaise, you have no idea what you do to me."

"I think I do," he said. Pepper expected there to be cockiness in those words, but there wasn't. There was just honesty.

"What do you mean?" she said breathily. Her heartbeat was quickening in anticipation of what he possibly meant.

"You do the same thing to me."

A smile was threatening to break out, but Pepper needed clarification. "What are you saying?"

He paused for a beat. "I love you."

"What?" she whispered. The sound was so quiet she wasn't even sure if he heard her.

"I love you," he repeated.

Tears sprung to Pepper's eyes, but this time they were happy tears. "You're kidding."

"It scares the hell out of me."

"It scares the hell out of me too."

Pepper had never seen him so vulnerable, and she loved it. She had his heart. "And why did you set this up for me?" she asked, referring to the romantic atmosphere that resembled the night Hermione lost her virginity.

"Because I want to make you happy," he said.

Emotion welled up inside of Pepper and she kissed him. She forgot about the looming threat to her life as she lost herself in Blaise. This was unbelievable, euphoric. "You're so sweet."

"Don't tell anyone," Blaise warned her.

She laughed and kissed him again. He released her face and wrapped his arms solidly around her waist. That was when the kiss turned from sweet to heat and Pepper remembered the intentions of this two-person table setup. She wrapped her legs around his waist and his hands 

moved to her ass to hold her up, and her leg protested at the sudden move. It was still in pain from Candie's beating. He began moving towards the staircase to Draco's bedroom.

"Aren't we supposed to eat dinner?" she asked as his lips moved to her neck.

He stopped kissing her just long enough to grab the champagne bottle before heading up the staircase. He kicked Draco's bedroom door open.

Blaise really went all-out on this plan. "There are fucking rose petals on the bed," Pepper said in disbelief.

Blaise just attacked her neck, making her thoughts fuzzy again. He set her down on the bed and stepped back to undo his tie. Pepper stood and moved his hands, locking eyes with him as she grabbed the knot of his tie and loosened it. She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him, sliding the tie from his neck. She started to undo the buttons on his shirt and pushed it off of his shoulders. It pooled onto the floor, and her blouse wasn't far behind.

"Bed," Blaise ordered throatily.

Pepper did as he said, scrambling onto Draco's extremely comfortable bed, rose petals underneath her. "Won't Draco want his bedroom?" she asked. Her head was swimming from his kisses and the fact that he was standing there shirtless, bathed in the fading light of the afternoon filtering through the windows.

"No, I've taken care of it," he replied. He joined her on the bed, climbing on top of her.

"How did you know I would agree to this? I _should_ have just kicked you and run away."

"No woman can resist my charm," he said, and the old cocky Blaise was back.

She loved the feeling of his bare chest on hers. She clutched him to her, kissing him fervently. Her heart was beating quickly in anticipation of what was about to happen. Yes, they had already had sex, but it wasn't their real bodies or their real faces. And now, _he loved her_. She was no longer jealous of Hermione.

Pepper arched her back as his hands skimmed down her stomach and his lips followed. She let out a moan as his lips reached her hip. Her leg was still aching faintly from Candie's abuse, but the fire in her much outweighed the pain. His mouth arrived at the button of her pants and he undid it with his teeth.

Pepper was going crazy. She was writhing beneath him. He slid her pants from her legs and they joined the growing pile of clothing on the floor. Then his lips were on hers again, hot and groping. She reached between them to unbutton his slacks. She pushed them down as far as she could, then left him to wriggle out of them the rest of the way. Changing their position, Pepper flipped them over so that she was straddling his waist, looking down at him. She ran her fingernails down his chest. He hissed involuntarily and a smile played at her lips. She loved that 

she could raise this reaction from him. When she reached up to run her hands down his chest again, he grabbed her wrists and flipped them back over. Pepper knew that she was not going to be in any power position anymore. Next thing she knew, her bra and knickers were on the floor and he was teasing every inch of her skin until she whimpered with desire. When he heard the pitiful noise escape her lips he stopped kissing her thigh and met her half-lidded eyes. His own eyes were clouded with lust, but he still managed to smirk arrogantly at her. "Was there something you wanted?" he asked, his voice low and sexy. His lips went to the spot behind her ear and she gasped. She felt like butter underneath him.

"Please Blaise, I need you," she panted. Her very being was on fire. She grabbed his boxers and pushed them down.

They were now both completely naked and he lay on top of her for a second, both of them reveling in the feeling. But Pepper couldn't wait any longer; she needed him _now_.

"Blaise," she moaned and rolled her hips toward him.

That was all the invitation he needed. He locked his lust-filled gaze with hers.

"Protection," she suddenly realized.

"Already taken care of," he assured her before slipping inside of her.

Pepper moaned in ecstasy as the paces of their lovemaking increased. She clawed at Blaise's back, chest, shoulders, trying to get closer to him. He was kissing her face and shoulders as they fell into a mind-blowing rhythm. Pepper couldn't believe this was happening; just this morning she had been fighting back heartbroken tears over this boy.

When it was over, they lay next to one another. Pepper was still having difficulty breathing. They were both sweaty, and rose petals were sticking to Pepper's legs.

"I wonder how many girls have been in this bed before me," Pepper joked, curling up next to Blaise. He wrapped his arms possessively around her.

"Not many in the past few months; he's had the same girl for a while."

"Really?" Pepper asked in disbelief. "Are they dating?"

"Secretly."

"Why is it a secret?"

"She's a Ravenclaw."

Pepper suddenly remembered the night she slept in Draco's bed: when she had knocked on the door he had been expecting someone. "Why does that matter? _You're_ dating a Gryffindor."

"Yes, but apparently Draco has more self-respect than I do."

Pepper hit him playfully.

"Plus, I always thought you should be a Slytherin."

"I can't believe he has a secret girlfriend."

"Can we stop talking about Draco," Blaise said.

"Why? What would you rather talk about?" Pepper asked innocently.

He kissed her roughly.


End file.
